


Something Else

by SCD07



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Graphic Description, M/M, Neko!Levi, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Shameless Smut, Slow Build, Violence, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-03-25 17:44:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 54,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3819280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SCD07/pseuds/SCD07
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erwin Smith thought titans were the only strange creatures running around, until a favor to Nile Dok brings him into contact with a tiny creature named Levi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Unusual Prey

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Thanks so much for taking time to ready my first fanfic (I apologize in advance)! Obviously I took some liberties with the story but I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

Erwin stifled the growl in his chest, expulsing a quiet sigh instead. This is not what I signed on for, he complained inwardly.

A gentle sniff drew his eyes to his right. “Problem?” Mike muttered softly. He and Erwin retained their semi-crouched stances in the narrow alleyway they were forced to hide in. Erwin’s gaze drifted upward, toward the shadowy rock ceiling and the stalactites the reached toward the haphazardly built city beneath. The buildings were stacked on top of each other like blocks, creating a myriad of alleys and streets that tiered over the actual cobbled avenues below. It made for a maze of annoying proportions.

“We’re supposed to be annihilating titans,” he scoffed, “not hunting mice the Police can’t handle.”

“I thought you liked showing Nile up,” Mike jibed. Their conversation was no louder than the occasional drip…drip…drip of moisture echoing throughout the cavernous Underground. “Throw him a bone,” Mike uttered more seriously. “The Military Police don’t have our level of training with the gear, and Nile said that a hearty shipment of it was stolen. We should be glad titans can’t use 3DMG.”

Erwin had to agree with that. When Commander Nile of the Military Police had contacted him looking for help in the Underground, Erwin was skeptical until it was revealed that the problem was more than stolen gear—the criminals knew how to use it.

Mike sniffed again sharply and lifted the corner of his forest green cloak to wipe his nose. “Can’t smell anything down here. Fucking reeks.”

Again, Erwin silently agreed. This was not the first time he’d been in the Underground, but certain aspects of the city were impossible to grow accustomed to. The smell being one of them. The mixture of sulfur and abundant human body odor was suffocating, trapped as it was beneath the rock. The other aspect, and Erwin’s personally least favorite, was the darkness. The constant lack of sunlight and fresh air made lifespans decrepitly short down here. More than once, Erwin was forced to walk past ghostly pale children as he wondered what the hell Nile was doing down here. Erwin understood that the criminals were only trying to survive, and he wondered often if leaving them to their schemes would actually improve the Underground, or if the bandits would merely rise to power and lord over the weak instead of using their gain for others.

None of that mattered, now, though. Solving human crimes was not the goal. Titans were the problem at hand, day and night, and having valuable—necessary—gear stolen could not be tolerated.

Erwin’s gaze jerked left, scanning the street and rooftops below. Mike following his gaze silently, having heard the same telltale hiss of 3DMG grapples. A head perked up over the horizon of rooftops, and after a moment Erwin made out the color of the cloak and the familiar sigil. Just a Military Police member.

He sighed through is nose again, but was unable to turn away his gaze. Erwin stared intently over the distance, wondering what the Police member was doing that was causing a spiral of unease curl up his spine.

Mike voiced what his eyes were failing to compute, “When did the Police let their soldiers get so lax on hygiene?”

That was it: even from this distance, the woman’s hair was a complete wreck.

“Let’s go,” Erwin declared, but neither reached for their triggers. Instead of noisily flying toward their target, they silently split up, climbing out of the alley and over rooftops to nimbly cross makeshift bungee rope bridges that crossed over some streets.

They began to enclose around their target, pincers closing around the woman wearing a uniform that was not hers, fiddling with a piece of gear she had no right to wear. In the distance he could hear rumblings of the city around them: the rattle of a wheel, the bark of a dog, cacophonous chatter of hundreds of people, as well as a faint bird’s whistle.

But there were no birds in the Underground.

Erwin shot forward just as the woman fired her grapples. Someone had seen them and signaled to her, indicating that she was not alone but as of yet, it was impossible to tell how many allies she had. Nevertheless, Erwin was flying after her like it was first nature, not wasting a second to deal with thinking. He let his peripheral vision survey his surroundings and tell him all he needed to know, his trained instincts allowing him to close in on her rapidly.

“Damn, not bad,” he heard Mike utter behind him. As they pursued the thief around tight corners, narrow streets, and even under bridges, he could not help but agree. He also felt a cold pit form in his stomach.

“Someone trained her,” he deduced. “We have to tell Nile there is likely a traitor in his ranks.”

“Let’s catch this one first,” Mike agreed, the same moment they both saw the flash of another set of ropes to their left. A man with equally disheveled hair flew past the street on their left. “I’ve got him,” Mike volunteered, swinging after the second target.

Erwin anchored himself in the stirrups of his harness and focused all of his intent on the woman. This close, he realized she was quite young, her figure lithe thanks to lack of food and exercise with the equipment. She did not lack for strength, however, which became more and more annoyingly evident as she gained distance from him. He began to feel like this was all just an effort to tire him, to make him give up and fall back—until he noticed a pattern.

Firing his grapples quickly to avoid colliding with the stonework of the buildings, Erwin saw a flash of silver, like light being reflected off a mirror. He credited it to the fatigue wearing down on him until he saw it again, and again, and knew that the girl was following this light.

Then he saw it again: a flash of silver beneath the laundry lines of an alleyway. Erwin dived for it first, taking the girl by surprise. Their tethers crossed, and she gave a shriek of panic. He closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her in a tight hold as they plummeted to the stone and dirt below. He had a split second’s time to aim one of his triggers so the rope would slow the landing. They still landed roughly, Erwin’s shoulder and back breaking the fall as the girl clutched his uniform desperately.

His first impression once the world righted itself was that gear was not the only thing she’d stolen. An overpowering scent of flowers and vanilla assaulted his nostrils due to her attempts to cover her body odor. Erwin made a mental note to tease Mike for not noticing her scent later on, but for now he had to deal with the rough red hair scratching his face as its owner thrashed against him.

“Be still,” he growled, tightening his arms in a sudden burst of strength that caused her to squeak in agony. She stilled completely, unable to breathe in his hold. “Where is your friend leading my companion?” he uttered in her ear. “And how many do you have?”

He loosened his arms slightly, just enough to let her breathe. Air practically shrieked through her lungs when she inhaled eagerly, her exertion from using the 3DMG causing her body to demand air.

Then, she did shriek, “Levi, NO!”

For a beat moment, Erwin wondered if he’d heard some strange language or colloquialism unique to the Underground, and then he felt claws dig into his eyes. He had no choice but to throw the girl aside and deal with whatever the hell was scratching at his face, causing blood and tears to fall down his cheeks.

Erwin felt something eerily soft and simultaneously bony in his hands as he threw it away from him. The sound of a small body hitting the stone wall of the alley was muffled by the girl’s scream.

“LEVI!”

Erwin breathed heavily as he wiped his face, inspecting how much blood came away on his fingers as he watched the girl lunge for…a cat?

He checked to make sure he still had both his eyes and then focused them on the pair of bodies huddled in the muddy puddle that was littered with laundry and lines they had torn through when they fell. Erwin observed her cradling a black head with disproportionately large ears before that head lifted and fixed him in place, as if his feet had been nailed to the ground.

Silver irises reflected equally silver light up at him, but it was more than the eyes that held Erwin transfixed. Despite the large ears and the obvious tail curling limply around the girl’s forearm, it was a very human face glaring up at him.

“What the hell…what is that?” Erwin uttered incredulously.

The girl trained livid eyes on him and rose to her feet strongly, the humanoid cat-baby-thing secured in her arms. “He’s my brother,” she said defiantly. “You got a problem with that?”

Erwin did not have an immediate response to that, but his first reaction was pity. He knew people were malnourished and oftentimes physically stunted here, but this was the first he’d witnessed warped mental faculties. But that didn’t make sense…how could someone so skilled with the military-grade equipment have a mental handicap?

Turns out, he never got a chance to answer her because for the second time in less than a minute, Erwin found himself being attacked.

“GET AWAY FROM THEM!” a male voice bellowed as its owner rammed into Erwin’s side. He felt the familiar and painful creak of a rib breaking but managed to grab the youth attacking him so they both went down. Erwin pinned the man beneath him and observed the sandy blond hair and angry blue eyes while he realized that it was not a man he had pinned at all; he could not have been much older than the girl. They were surely teenagers but they were still children.

A large hand entered Erwin’s vision and scooped the boy out from under him by the scruff of the stolen uniform. Mike was holding the girl in a similar fashion as he easily set the boy on his feet and groaned, “I need a drink after this.” His gaze jerked toward the girl and he grimaced. “Ooph, not sure how I missed you but lay off the perfume, darling.”

The girl grit her teeth, furious tears staining her eyes. It was then that Mike noticed the harsh, angry purrs rumbling from the bundle in her arms. “Shit,” was all he could utter.

“Let us go!” the boy squirmed. Erwin took him off Mike’s hands and kicked out the backs of his knees, bringing the boy to a kneeling position. The girl slowly lowered to her knees herself.

Erwin eyed her intensely. “I’ll only ask once more: how many are you?”

It was the boy who answered. “What’s the population of the Underground?” he quipped dryly. “Because they’d all like a piece of you grass huggers.”

“Hm,” Erwin mused. He was fond of grass. One of the perks of traveling outside of the walls was to be able to see the view of miles and miles of open fields of grass. After spending several hours in the Underground, the memories became unbearable, and then an idea occurred to him. “How would you like to see real grass?”

Both the boy and girl stared at him blankly until their eyes widened. Even Mike looked startled from where he stood behind them. Erwin explained, “You’re both highly skilled with the 3DMG equipment. The Survey Corps would be grateful to have you, on two conditions: the first being that you comply with our rules and regulations, and the second is that you tell us who trained you to use this gear.”

The youths glanced at each other warily. The boy said, “He hasn’t even asked our names or bought us a drink, yet he wants a committed relationship.”

She piped a laugh and returned her suspicious gaze to Erwin. “No one taught us how to use it. Your Police friends are paid to ignore us, not to help us.”

Erwin saw Mike’s brow furrow and his own face mirrored the expression. It was no secret how corrupt the Military Police were; this was the main reason Nile had such a hard time getting anything significant done. But what she said implied…

“You mean to tell me that you trained yourselves? You could have broken your necks.”

They both scoffed, the boy saying outright, “The last thing we need is some Survey tool scolding us on how to use equipment we know how to fly better than he can.”

The girl’s head jerked down, pulling Erwin’s gaze down as well toward the black ears fluttering. He realized then how quiet their surroundings were. It was astounding how much noise there was beneath the ground when it all went silent.

“We have to go. Now,” he announced, bending his knees to lift the girl to her feet while Mike did the same to the boy. The cat-like creature leaped from her arms and dashed between Erwin’s feet.

“Follow him!” she cried softly, as if wishing not to be overheard by whoever was now hunting them. Erwin’s body instinctively flexed, adrenaline coiling in his system along with fear. Usually he experienced this outside the walls, in the presence of titans, but down here, he had no idea who or how many he was facing.

The teenagers leaped into the air, shooting off in a haze of ropes and hissing gas. He and Mike easily kept up, and for a while Erwin had no idea where the cat named Levi had gone until he saw glimpses of shadowy black and flashes of silver.

It’s quick for a tiny thing, he commended, watching the creature dash over rooftops and out of sight before reappearing again to lead them onward.

Out of the rush of air and hissing grapple ropes, Erwin heard something else, causing his head to look over his shoulder. “Mike,” he announced stiffly.

Mike followed his gaze behind them and grimaced at the dozen or so people whizzing toward them on stolen 3DMG gear. “I don’t think the kids stole the crate,” he informed, “but I do think they stole from the wrong assholes.”

Erwin had a sinking feeling that Mike was right, and he triggered his gas mechanisms to propel him faster. He knew immediately where little Levi was taking them—the same place they’d used to enter the Underground. The four of them landed on a particularly high rooftop and climbed though an almost invisible hole in the rock, only distinguishable by the torrent of water falling from it. Stepping through the water and careful to not slip, they climbed through a steep, shallow tunnel that opened up into a sewage gutter. Erwin could hear the shouts of vendors above and see feet moving past the grille bars that allowed water to runoff the streets. The entire environment rattled with the sound of rain and water falling all around them.

The girl was splashing over toward where the cat waited on the stone platform beneath a ladder, its ears lowered to avoid rain falling in them. Erwin looked at the creature clearly for a moment and noticed the filthy swaddle of cloth poorly pinned around its body.

“ISABEL! GO!” the boy cried. Mike was already on the ladder, hand raised to push the cover off but he and Erwin turned to see what gave the boy pause.

He fell face forward into the water, half his throat sliced open while a dagger protruded from his back, stuck in his heart.

“FARLAN!” the girl, Isabel, screamed, but it was sliced short—literally—by a blade whistling in the air, and landing in her throat.

Out of all the noise in the sewage tunnel at that moment, over the rain, the dripping, the splashing, the beating pulse in his own ears, Erwin heard the abrupt mewl that cracked from Levi’s small mouth. He looked down at the tiny creature kneeling on the platform, storm-grey eyes staring down at the girl’s gaping mouth, at the red pooling around hers and Farlan’s corpses. He recognized shock when he saw it, and immediately grabbed the cat, holding it in the crook of his elbow as he hastily followed Mike to the street and safety above.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a way to end it. Poor Levi! Chapters should be rolling on the web pretty steadily but if there's a pause, don't worry. I just had to take a moment to get back to real life, but that never lasts long haha I'd rather be building an intense Eruri romance instead--WHOOPS! Spoilers! ;)


	2. He Talks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erwin heads back to headquarters prepared to figure out what Levi is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back in less than 24 hours! Don't count on this progress though haha I just want to get this story going so the action can pick up and it won't be such a boring read. Thanks for making it to Chapter 2!

Mike and Erwin quickly ducked into a deserted side street. Considering they were covered in grimy filth, they needed to avoid too many eyes seeing them. Erwin discovered unpleasantly that the knees of his trousers were splotched with blood.

Tiny nails suddenly digging into Erwin’s neck halted their progress back to Survey Corps headquarters. He gave an indignant squawk and grabbed the body that easily fit in one of his hands.

“Levi!” he demanded, yanking the creature off his throat. Those short arms continued to reach for him, a cruel grimace on the infantile face. By the pinpricks of his pupils, Erwin knew Levi was still in the throes of shock, the creature’s default reaction was to go on the defensive. However they were still out in the open, and he could not deal with a cat-like baby tearing at his throat until they were back at headquarters. Erwin bundled Levi in his cloak, effectively restricting the creature’s range of movement as he continued to carry it under the crook of his arm, out of sight of wandering eyes. After a moment, Levi’s squirms diminished, and finally were still. 

Mike peered at the bundle and then at Erwin. “What are you planning to do with that?”

Normally, Erwin had a plan for everything, and Mike knew this, but the circumstances with this creature named Levi placed him in an unusual place. Erwin’s mind was already buzzing with thought as to how best to proceed.

“Find out what it is first,” he informed, glancing at his cloak. “There is a high level of intelligence that could be quite useful to us.”

Mike seemed to understand the admission before his brows shot toward his hairline. “You’re not…you’re not giving it to her?”

Erwin peered at his friend and comrade. “Why not? If anyone can tell us anything, it’s Hange.”

Mike groaned and wiped his dark blond hair off his forehead. “I just got used to her ramblings about titans, now you’re giving her a new thing to obsess over.”

Erwin swallowed thickly. Mike had a point. As much as he respected and even liked Hange Zoe, she was a bit overbearing at times…and that was an understatement. He meant what he’d said, though: as eccentric as Hange was, she was brilliant, and she could get to the bottom of the mystery he now carried in the crook of his elbow.

It was early evening when they finally trudged back onto base, but the storm made it practically nighttime. Mike offered to help with Levi but Erwin dismissed him, knowing how the man’s metabolism was urging him toward food, which was in the opposite direction of Hange’s lab. As for Erwin, he needed a bath more than anything at the moment.

In the officers’ barracks he had a room to himself on the second floor, on the corner of the building. His room was the best kept secret: large enough to room two people comfortably along with a full bathroom with a copper tub, sink, and even a spout for showers if the hot water tank was working properly.

To his blissful surprise, it was, so Erwin gently placed the bundle of his cloak in the sink and then shed his clothes in record time. He kept his eyes trained on the sink as he lathered soap all over his tense body and hair, letting the water rinse it away so he was finished in less than five minutes.

He dried and dressed in another set of uniform clothes: white button up shirt, and trousers. He left the skirt, boots, and harness off as he approached the sopping cloak that had still not so much as twitched in the sink. Carefully unwrapping the dark green cloth, he revealed the shivering form of Levi. In proper lighting, Erwin saw that he did not have claws, merely sharp nails on tiny fingers curled into fists. The entire body was filthy, due to bare feet and living in the Underground.

Erwin turned the hot water knob on the sink and waited for the water to be lukewarm. Cold as Levi was, the water would feel scalding if he let it be too warm at first. Rolling the small frame over, Erwin paused to see the spray of blood on Levi’s face and the rag it used as clothing. While he carefully took apart the pins, the movement seemed to rouse the creature to full consciousness, squirming under the current of water and grabbing at the cloth determinedly.

“Sshhh,” Erwin heard himself soothe. “You’re in shock. You need to get warm or you’ll freeze.”

It was then that Levi peered at Erwin with those grey eyes and then stared at his reflection in the metal of the faucet. Erwin watched, astounded as Levi gaped at his reflection, rubbing at the blood splatters on his cheeks and nose before ducking under the water.

With the cloth finally in the rubbish can, Erwin noticed that Levi was male. Observing the creature washing himself gave Erwin a curious view of his anatomy: the small human body, like an infant's, and the uneven, straight black hair that grew around black feline ears. Erwin wondered curiously why Levi had cat ears on top of his head as well as human ears on the sides, but his gaze was directed toward the tail as Levi’s back rippled and arched beneath the water. A soft, dark trail of hair led from the nape of his throat, down his spine, and into the black fur of his sleek tail. Well, as sleek as it could be from an Underground environment. It looked like a small bite had been taken out of the tail and there was a bald patch as well.

Erwin noticed the water had gone cold and twisted the knob to turn it off. Levi observed this and reached forward, small hands pushing to twist the water back on. Erwin held the knob firm and scooped Levi up in a fresh towel. He mewed angrily as the towel was rubbed vigorously around his body, hair bushy and disheveled when his head perked up out of the towel. Levi sighed a short huff of air to vent his annoyance, to which Erwin found himself having to suppress a laugh.

There’s quite a lot of personality in you, he thought silently.

“This is all I have,” he said aloud, reaching for a bandana he rarely used for cleaning. Levi eyed him dubiously as Erwin’s fingers tied the white fabric around him like a miniature toga, after which he slumped in Erwin’s arms as they made their way to Hange’s lab. No sooner was the door open then Erwin froze at the loud BANG! Levi cringed, his small body curling and gripping Erwin’s shirt for safety, eyes wide.

“HANGE!” Erwin bellowed authoritatively.

Sooty spectacles peeked up from beneath the countertop. “Hi, Erwin!”

He was about to approach the table she crouched under when Levi leaped from his arms. Reflexively, Erwin slammed the door to bar his escape. 

Hange eagerly rubbed soot from her goggles, squealing, “What IS that?”

Erwin saw a blur of black and white dash inside a cupboard. “Hange, stop yelling. He’s frightened.”

“HE?” she piped, but at his angry look she retried quietly, “He?”

Without answering, Erwin approached the cupboard and opened one of the doors. “Levi? You can come out, you’re not in danger here.”

Hange approached quietly, although her entire frame was shaking with excitement. When no sound or movement was forthcoming, Erwin added, “We’ll only be here for a few minutes, then I’ll take you to get dinner.”

But even at the notion of food, Levi did not emerge. Hange whispered helpfully, “Aw, he’s shy! Does he understand what ‘dinner’ is?” Then, her gaze went blank as she realized by which cupboard they were standing. “Or he likely passed out. There’s some chemicals with powerful fumes in there…”

Erwin spared a wide-eyed look at her before swinging the other door open. Sure enough, Levi was passed out beside a poorly sealed beaker of ominous yellow fluid. “Hange!” Erwin scolded as he carefully lowered Levi from the cupboard.

“What?” she defended. “It’s a laboratory! I didn’t know you were bringing a thing that would scurry through my experiments! Speaking of…what is he?”

Erwin carefully lay Levi down on one of the clean worktables, using a sheet of paper to fan his face. His black tresses fluttered, and after a moment, one of his ears did too.

“Four ears, wow,” Hange hummed, elbows propped on the table as she gazed at him. “He’s got a lot to listen to.”

Levi’s eyes popped open, black lashes swooping upward to focus a fiery glare in Hange’s direction. Instead of cowering, Hange whimpered with glee, as she reached a hand forward. “Aaawww! You’re just too precious. I’ve never seen anything like him!”

Levi’s small hand came up to swat her fingers away. “No!” he mewed in a chastising tone.

Erwin thought Hange’s eyes were going to widen larger than her goggles at that moment. She lunged forward, doubling over the table and reaching out for the creature. “OH! HE TALKS! You sweet, little cutie, you!”

Erwin instinctively reached out and scooped Levi within the curve of his palm and wrist, sliding him easily against his stomach and away from Hange’s groping hands. She frowned deeply and glared up at Erwin. “Hange, be serious. He’s not a pet,” he reprimanded lightly.

He could feel Levi’s head pivot to look up at him, but Erwin kept his eyes on Hange, driving his point across. Finally she sighed, annoyed. “Fine,” she whined, “but no matter what, he’s far too skinny. I want him to have daily checkups to monitor his diet and weight gain.”

Levi’s ears flattened against his scalp, his body instinctively curling in on itself defensively.

“Any idea what he’ll eat?” Erwin asked eagerly. He agreed that Levi’s ribs and pelvis were far too prominent.

Hange shrugged. “He’ll probably tell you himself, but my guess is fish would be a nice place to start. Or! I can whip up a smoothie, of sorts, full of amino acids and proteins, and—”

“No thanks,” Erwin quickly countered. “Thanks for your help, though. I’ll bring him by in the morning.”

Her jaw dropped. “That’s it? I get a peek but I can’t properly examine him?”

Erwin lifted Levi against his body as he said consolingly, “I don’t know when his last meal was, and he needs rest. The two people he was with…he just saw his family die before his eyes, Hange.”

Her entire face went slack at that. “Oh…poor thing…well if he needs a place to sleep my room is wide open! I washed the sheets three months ago so they’re still clean, right? I could fluff a pillow for him to sleep on or—”

“Good night, Hange!” Erwin chimed firmly, shutting the laboratory door behind him. He could still hear her rattling off hospitality arrangements for Levi. It was as he made his way toward the mess hall that he realized it might not be the best tactic to walk into a room with a couple hundred soldiers carrying Levi. Erwin diverted his path into Commander Shadis’s office. The man always had food and drink readily available.

“Come in!” he head after knocking. His commander peeked up and immediately locked onto Levi. “Well…you’ve got yourself a kemon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 should appear in the next day or so. Check back soon, though! (And yes, 'kemon' is based on kemonomimi, the manga style of characters with cat ears/tail. If I got the term wrong, though, feel free to call me out!)


	3. In Over Your Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Levi's mystery begins to become clearer, more questions arise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Chapter 3 :)

Erwin stared dumbfounded for a second. “A…a kemon?” he repeated, approaching the commander’s desk. He could feel Levi’s heart thump thump thump thump thump thump thumping against his hand.

Commander Shadis nodded, his eyes weary from the mountain of paperwork beside his elbow. “It has been a long while since I’ve seen one,” he mused. Propping his chin in one hand, he opened the other, palm up, as if in offering. Erwin was not sure what he meant by it until Levi jumped from his grasp once again, landing soundlessly on the edge of the desktop, his tail expertly flexed for balance. The commander’s lips slowly formed a keen smirk as Levi carefully approached, eyeing his hand suspiciously, sniffing his fingertips. As if in approval, Levi sat down, his knees folding against his chest on the center of the desk.

Those wise, weary eyes lifted toward Erwin as he sat in the chair opposite the commander. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into, do you, Smith?”

Erwin could not stifle the nervous laugh that bubbled up in his throat. “I surely don’t, but I couldn’t leave him where he was… If I may, sir, how do know what he is?”

Shadis shrugged a shoulder, more focused on turning his hand over slowly enough for Levi’s inspection and comfort. Erwin found himself observing their interaction closely, how quickly Levi seemed to trust him.

“I knew a kemon once,” the commander revealed. A soft, nostalgic smile formed on his face, reaching his eyes. Erwin had seen many expressions there, the glint of mischief, the shadow of disapproval, even the blankness of shock, but this was new. “Hell of a woman,” Shadis finished.

Erwin felt he would be overstepping a boundary if he inquired further, so instead he explained, “I don’t want to risk bringing him to the mess hall, but he needs to eat. You wouldn’t have anything he might like, would you?”

“Oh I’m sure I have something,” the commander assured, rising from his seat. “If you can eat it, so can he.”

Erwin exhaled, relieved. “That’s good to know,” he uttered before a glass fell and shattered. Levi darted into his hands so quickly he was more shocked by Levi’s reaction time than the glass falling. Erwin gazed down to see those tiny knuckles turn white from gripping his shirt front so hard.

Shadis chuckled softly. “My apologies. It is a habit of mine to set things on top of the ice box.” He leaned down, inspecting his cache of goodies. “Let’s see…I have some frozen raspberries…some sliced meats from the capitol…”

“No fish,” Levi grumbled, planting himself on Erwin’s lap.

Shadis tossed a smile over his shoulder. “No fish, it is. Here, these taste quite nicely together, but take care, it’s far richer than what you’re used to.”

Levi sniffed the package of meat and raspberries as Erwin tore off a strip to wrap around a berry. Levi took the morsel in both hands and sniffed it some more before opening wide and chomping half the thing in his mouth. His grey eyes went wide, ears fluttering.

“I think he likes it,” Erwin reckoned as Shadis swept up the shards of glass.

“You’re welcome to help yourself,” he offered. “I think a couple more berries will fill his stomach and I have a friend in the capitol who owes me a favor. I can get more.”

Erwin obliged and prepped his own berry, popping it into his mouth and relishing the tangy-sweet berry with the savory salt of the meat. He felt Levi’s eyes on him as he chewed and swallowed, meeting his gaze as Levi nibbled on the other half of his berry.

Commander Shadis resumed his seat and watched Levi eagerly observing Erwin prepping the next berry, reaching for it greedily when it was offered. This time, when he repeated the question, it was without mirth: “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into, do you?”

Erwin locked eyes with him, waiting for the pin to drop. “What do you mean?”

Shadis nodded at Levi. “At the first sound of danger, he leaps for you. He’s attached to you already. You have a lot of responsibility coming your way, and while it will be entertaining for me, I’m not sure you’re ready for it.”

Erwin was so accustomed to dealing with giant monsters that a small one hardly seemed too much trouble. Before he could comment, however, Shadis gestured toward his eyes. “It looks like you had a rough introduction.”

“Ah…yes,” he admitted, rubbing the scratches around his eyes. He hadn’t noticed until now how they stung a bit, but not overly so. “We met under tense circumstances.”

“I can imagine,” Shadis smiled again. “You went on your Underground mission, which I know nothing about, today, didn’t you?”

Erwin laughed. The favor to Nile had been a covert operation. Military Police were not keen on other branches intruding on their playing fields, despite when it was necessary. “Yes. In the end, we found the group who’d stolen the 3DMG, but two teenagers stole from them in turn. They were the ones we intercepted first, and when I flew down the girl…Isabel…”

He said her name softly, watching Levi stiffen around his raspberry. Erwin stroked a hand gently over his small back, feeling the ridges of his vertebrae slowly relax. “Levi attacked me to defend her. Mike flew down the boy, Farlan, but as we were questioning them, the group who’d stolen the gear came for vengeance. We had to run back up to the sewers. Isabel and Farlan didn’t make it.”

Levi did not seem interested in the berry anymore. Shadis let a moment of silence go by in honor of the casualties. After another minute, he said, “You did the right thing. Kemon do not have a shining history, or mythology, more like it, rare as they are. Used and abused, or they're abused and grow to become monsters, essentially. Levi, you said?”

Erwin nodded, still rubbing the delicate back until Levi relented to his stomach and started nibbling on the berry once more. Shadis leaned back in his chair. “Levi is special, I can already tell you that with certainty. That small but with such grace and agility…”

“He’s astonishingly fast, too,” Erwin agreed. “He can keep up with the 3DMG; he was leading the girl around the Underground before I finally spotting what she was following and intercepted her. He also led us to safety when we had to run.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Shadis commended. “It’s a shame I have to go to the capitol tomorrow. I’d enjoy watching his progress.”

“You’ll only be gone a fortnight,” Erwin recalled as he tightened the knots of Levi’s makeshift toga. When he looked up, he thought he recognized a glint in Shadis’s eyes, but he blinked, and it was gone. “I want to put Hange on clothing reconnaissance but she might take the task a bit too seriously…”

“Don’t worry about clothing right now. He’ll grow soon enough.”

Based on how Levi had clung to his original rag, Erwin thought raiment would be the next item on his list, but he took the commander at his word. “Is there anything I can do to help you prepare for tomorrow, sir?”

Shadis sighed. “No, no, you have your hands full, and you’ll be strung out for the next two weeks as acting commander. Consider yourself off duty tonight and attend to more pressing matters.” He looked at Levi. “Get some rest, son. You’ll need it to keep up with that one.”

Erwin’s throat bobbed when he swallowed, the endearment catching him off guard. He reached for one last berry in case Levi wanted it, but Shadis waved his hand, saying, “Take the lot.”

“Thank you, sir,” he uttered gratefully, since he would not make it to the mess hall for a proper dinner. Given the relaxed nature of the evening, he left without a salute, carefully marching up the stairs so as to not jostle Levi. Once in his room, he set Levi down on one of his pillows but seated himself at the table, wanting to look over some documents and plans he would need to attend to the following day and further into the week during Shadis’s absence.

Popping berries into his mouth and occasionally chewing bits of meat, Erwin slowly ate through his meal and finished his paperwork by the time the candle was halfway burnt. When he grasped the holder to take it to his nightstand, he turned to find Levi watching him. He had not said anything other than ‘No’ and ‘No fish’ in the hours they’d known each other.

“You’re not going to claw my eyes out while I sleep, are you?” Erwin teased, setting the candle down and tugging off his boots. Levi fixed him with a less-than-amused glare but said nothing. Erwin considered changing into something more comfortable than his uniform garments, but since he would be up in just a few hours’ time, he decided to just fall into bed as he was.

It occurred to him that there a large number of things he’d forgotten to ask Shadis, Levi’s sleeping situation being one of them. It was too late, now, though, and slumber was already pulling Erwin under the bed’s plush covers. He heard the rustle of fabric and peeked an eye open to see Levi settling on the pillow, yanking a corner of the comforter up to cover his body. A corner of Erwin's mouth perked up in the same instant. Without even looking, he reached over and pinched the candle flame out. “Good night, Levi,” he murmured.

 

It did not matter when Erwin fell asleep, he awoke at the same hour every morning, his internal body clock chiming. The sun was just starting to peek through the curtains of his window and his eyes felt heavy, just like the rest of his body. It took several moments for the previous day to resurface in his memory and explain why his body felt like beaten lead. His fractured rib was in a particular state, but it was nothing a good cup of tea with a dash of liquor wouldn’t cure.

When he tried to rise out of bed, however, he froze in place. Propping himself on an elbow, Erwin peered down and lifted the covers to find Levi curled between his legs. He had no idea when or how Levi had come to be there, but he almost regretted moving him from that spot, slumbering as deeply as he was.

Levi stirred, and Erwin settled against his headboard with him cradled to his chest, letting Levi awaken in his own time. His head lifted to fix crooked eyes on Erwin, blinking grogginess away until they focused. Levi suddenly appeared shocked at seeing who held him, and Erwin watched the same tragic memories crash down on the creature in his hands.

A part of Erwin’s mind warned him that his next move would likely earn him more scratch marks, but he ignored it. Leaning down, he planted a gentle kiss between Levi’s drooping ears. “It’s all right to mourn,” he murmured. “Let it out.”

The powerful yet frail body was statuesque for a long minute, and then it began to tremble, before quakes shook his shoulders and he collapsed against Erwin’s sternum. His thumbs massaged the tension above the small shoulder blades as Levi cried quietly into his shirt, tail hanging limply over his stomach. The sun was illuminating the room by the time Levi’s tremors abated and he wiped his cheeks on the bandana he wore.

“Hungry?” Erwin asked. Levi looked up at him and nodded. Erwin set him down to don his boots and the rest of his uniform. “The only one eating at this hour will be Mike,” he informed conversationally.

Then, recalling the interaction with Shadis the previous evening, Erwin turned back to Levi, palm upward. Those fingers curled around Erwin’s for anchorage, and he climbed onto the platform of his hand, ready to be taken to breakfast.

Mike glanced up, his mouth full of scrambled eggs and bacon bits. “Merrnin,” he managed to greet. After a swallow he added, “How’s the cat?”

Levi bristled at that, jumping down to confront Mike on the tabletop. “Not cat. Levi,” he declared tersely.

Mike stared at him, dumbfounded. “Holy shit,” he breathed.

“Mind watching him while I grab a tray?” Erwin asked.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Mike waved him away, pinching a piece of bacon toward Levi like a peace offering. When he sat across from him, Mike guessed, “You seeing Shadis off this morning?”

“Yes, he should be leaving in half an hour,” Erwin looked at the clock on the wall to make sure. Behind him, the doors burst open in such a way that could only announce Hange’s entrance. Erwin stifled a curse and scrubbed a hand over his eyes.

“Morning, Hange,” Mike greeted, friendly enough despite the wary glance he exchanged between her and Levi, the latter of whom took refuge on the inside of Erwin’s elbow.

Hange approached the table in a determined manner, dropping a clipboard overloaded with papers on the table. Her mouth opened wide, ready to spew every tidbit of information running around in her head, but then her eyes flicked toward Mike. “Does he know?” she asked guardedly.

Erwin’s eyes widened slightly, impressed by Hange’s restraint and intuition on how sensitive the matter was with Levi. He was incredibly grateful to her in that moment despite the fact that Erwin would trust Mike with all of his secrets.

Not that Mike knew his darkest, twisted secrets, but it was the principle of the thing.

“Yes, he knows,” he smiled, ready for everything Hange was about to throw his way.

“Good,” she approved, dropping onto the bench with finality. “Then Mike, how does the little guy smell?”

Levi’s ears flipped forward, totally attentive and on the alert. Mike tipped his head and shrugged. “Better than when we found him,” then he seemed to consider the question a bit more. “Actually, he smells kinda nice. A bit like Erwin at the moment, but I think that’s because they slept together.”

Hange turned betrayed eyes toward Erwin. “After I went through all the arrangements so he could stay in MY room! Erwin Smith, are we friends or aren’t we?” she demanded.

It was lucky his mouth was full of eggs, and bacon at that moment so he had a little extra time to tactfully evade. “Of course we are, Hange. I trust you with Levi’s medical health, but I can’t force him to sleep somewhere he doesn’t feel comfortable. He wouldn’t shut his eyes last night until I did.”

The fire in her eyes melted then and he wondered if he’d rather have her fury than the gushy sentiment she was now oozing. “That is so PRECIOUS!” she cooed, but Erwin swooped in to redirect her thoughts.

“What’s on the agenda?” was all he needed to say as he looked pointedly at her clipboard.

“Well first off,” she began, “why is he eating eggs? We don’t know what could cause him indigestion or diarrhea, or what he’s allergic to—”

“Shadis is familiar with his kind,” Erwin interrupted calmly. “His diet is just like a human’s.”

“Shadis, huh?” Mike wondered curiously. He seemed more interested in contemplating that as he dived back into the mound of food on his tray. Erwin continued to listen patiently at Hange’s hypotheses and plans regarding Levi’s hygiene, clothing, even providing a blueprint for an obstacle course to see the extent of his physical abilities.

“The training ground we have would be sufficient enough,” Erwin clarified.

“Really?” she exclaimed. “Because the walls are meant for 3DMG…”

“You haven’t seen Levi move,” he assured rather proudly. He knew once Hange saw just what Levi could do without any form of gear, she was going to be thrilled and just as wild as ever. Erwin continued to listen to her while he ate with his left hand; the right unconsciously stroking Levi’s back.

“Holy shit,” Mike gasped for the second time.

“I know, right!” Hange squealed gleefully. “It only took me two hours last night to think it up…now that I think about it, I’m actually not sure I slept at all, or maybe I dreamt all of it, which is quite nice. Having to wake up or fall asleep wastes so much time! If I can just slide back and forth between consciousness and sleep but all the while still thinking, I could get twice as much work done—”

“No!” he scolded, pointing his fork animatedly. “Levi’s growing!”

Erwin blankly looked down, and for a moment thought Mike was the one who needed sleep. But as he gazed at Levi, he saw the folds of the bandana gradually fill a little more, the jutting bones of Levi’s ribs not as prominent. The bald patch on his tail was gone, as well as the bite taken out of it. His black hair appeared glossy, soft against Erwin’s touch. Overall, Levi had filled out quite a bit and grown a couple inches. His face and hands were more defined, already loosing the soft layer of fat infants have.

Hange screamed, taking them all by greater surprise. “HOLY FUCKING ROSE! I HAVE TO WRITE THIS IN MY LOG!” And with that, she dashed out the doors, talking to herself about computing the growth rate Levi had just undertaken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, thank you for slugging through this boring addition. But hey, ground work first, right? Hopefully I'll see you in Chapter 4!


	4. Acting Commander

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Commander Shadis in the capitol for the next fortnight, Erwin begins to realize just how much work lies ahead of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woot! Chapter 4! It's shorter than I intended but that's okay. Hope you enjoy!

“You said he’d grow quickly enough, I didn’t think you meant…” Erwin paused, flustered while Shadis gazed at him with a blatant curve to his lips.

“Where is Levi now?” he asked calmly. They stood in front of his carriage, his trunks already loaded on the back. The driver was replenishing his coffee, allowing the two men a few minutes of conversation before Shadis departed.

Erwin casually glanced around and discreetly revealed Levi under his cloak, little feet dangling between Erwin’s fingers. Shadis smiled warmly, holding his upturned hand out to him. “Good morning, Levi.”

Levi’s hand closed around a couple of his fingertips, but his other hand kept a tight hold on the strap of Erwin’s harness.

“He looks healthy,” Shadis approved, his thumb stroking over the back of Levi’s hand once. “It wouldn’t be far fetched to say he’s actually older than he looks. It takes a special environment for kemon to grow; that’s why he’s so small now. Just keep doing what you’re doing, Smith. He’ll sprout like a weed in no time.”

“And what, then?” Erwin asked. “I can’t keep him a secret if he gets bigger.”

Shadis surprised him then by guffawing. “Why on earth would you want to keep a marvelous thing like him secret?”

The driver emerged, then, his boots crunching on the fine gravel. Shadis released Levi’s hand and Erwin let his cloak fall back into place. Shadis shook his hand, and Erwin gave a careful salute, as much as he could with Levi in one hand.

“I am sure you will figure things out, Smith,” Shadis declared with a parting smile. The carriage door separated them, and Erwin waited until the vehicle was down the drive before peeking into his cloak. Levi gazed up at him, eyes as grey as the sky above. Erwin gently pushed the black tresses off his face, causing Levi’s eyelashes to tickle his fingers when he blinked.

No sooner was he inside then Hange intercepted him. “Has he grown?” she asked frantically.

“No,” Erwin muttered calmly. “Shall we have that check up, now?”

“Yes!” She skipped ahead of him and threw the doors open to her laboratory. At some point she’d actually made attempts to tidy up the place. Erwin hung his cloak on the hook by the door and carried Levi to the same table as yesterday. Hange anxiously brought over a small scale and asked Levi to climb on. He maneuvered off Erwin’s hand on all fours, but stood up on his two feet to cross the table. Hange balanced the scale with counterweight and recorded the data on her charts, but then her gaze lifted at the needle slowly tipping out of balance.

“He’s growing right now!” she chimed, adding a small block of extra counterweight. “This in incredible! I can monitor this—”

“He can’t stand on a scale all day,” Erwin reminded.

Hange gave him a look that told him he was being foolish. “Of course not. I’m not one of THOSE scientists. But I’d like to make his checkups twice a day, after breakfast and dinner. It will be remarkable to see what changes as he grows! Puberty is a wonderfully cruel period of growth. It really turns some people inside out before—oh, he stopped growing,” she murmured dejectedly.

Levi stepped off the scale, looking bored. Erwin waited for Hange to scribble more notes onto her clipboard but his eyes drifted toward the clock on the wall. A suspiciously brown liquid had dried to the glass, making it hard to read, but he gauged that he was running out of precious minutes he needed to fulfill his duties for the day.

“Levi,” he said. Silver-grey eyes turned to him as he padded across the table. Erwin crouched down so his elbows rested on the table. “With Shadis gone, I am commander in his stead, which means I have several places to be today. Can you stay with Hange until I come for you this evening?”

Those black ears swiveled to the back of his head, clearly affronted. Hange, however, squealed in delight. Levi shot her his customary glare, to which she responded, “Don’t you look at me like that! We’re going to have a grand time, you and I. Don’t worry, Erwin! He’s in good hands! Figuratively speaking…”

Levi transferred the glare to Erwin, who smiled while combing his fingers through the soft raven hair again. Levi’s eyes closed as his head leaned into Erwin’s touch, his small body swaying slightly with the movement of his hand. Levi released a short huff of air, resigned to his fate.

“She’s not so bad,” he reassured. “Just loud…and manic. I’ll send Mike to check on you.”

“Excuse you!” she piped, but her attention quickly switched to, “Levi, can I cut your hair? That will be a great sample for my experiments.”

Levi bristled but did not make any attempts to cling to Erwin, so he took that as a good sign. “I’ll see you both soon,” he announced, grasping his cloak on his way out.

His first stop was at the training grounds, where the pitifully small number of recruits was supposed to have a demonstration from him and Mike this morning. Mike was already there, sniffing along the line of trainees and thoroughly unnerving most of them. Erwin was sure he secretly enjoyed rattling the youngsters, but otherwise Mike was harmless.

“Anything promising?” Erwin greeted. He nodded at the salutes from the trainees, casually ordering them at ease.

Mike stepped back to be in line with Erwin. He crossed his arms with a shrug. “Nothing extraordinary,” he informed, but then he pointed at a short, blond haired youth, whose eyes widened anxiously. “He smells yummy, though.”

Erwin chuckled as the younger blonde swallowed nervously. The training exercise went smoothly enough, or as smoothly as recruits knocking into each other in the air can go, but Erwin was pleased by how quickly they picked up the maneuvers he and Mike showed them. His next order of business involved a lengthy meeting with the squad leaders of the Corps in regards to the next mission outside the walls. They still had several months to plan ahead, but it always felt like not enough time once the date actually arrived.

Sometime between the meeting and dinner, Mike strolled into his office without knocking and informed, “You might want to check on your cat. He’s not taking separation well.”

Erwin looked up from his paperwork, pen still in place from writing. “What do you mean?”

Mike shrugged. “He’s not dying or anything, but you know Hange. I walked in on her climbing over cabinets trying to reach him.”

Erwin scrubbed a hand over his face. He could not say he was surprised, but that did nothing to ease his stress. “Thanks, Mike. I’ll be in for a late dinner.”

“I’ll wait up for you,” he promised, closing the door behind him. Erwin took a deep breath, inhaling slowly until his lungs burned, and then slowly exhaling it out. He only had a few more pages or so of his mission draft to complete, so he focused on finishing before sealing it in his desk drawer and turning out the lamp.

Upon approaching Hange’s lab, he could hear odd sounds through the door. This was not unusual but considering Levi was in there, his hand reached for the knob faster than usual. Erwin opened the door and had a second to react to Levi jumping for him. He caught him easily enough, but as soon as his hands closed around Levi, his blue eyes shot fire toward the scientist. “Hange, why have you kept your lab nearly freezing all day?” he chastised.

“What are you talking about?” she exclaimed, although not really paying attention to him as she juggled stirring beakers and writing notes in multiple log books. “I’m burning up!”

“Well he’s shivering!” Erwin scolded, encompassing Levi in his warm hands.

“That’s what he gets for running from me all day!” Hange rebuked. “They're probably just chills from running all over this damn lab! On the plus side, I won’t have to put him on the obstacle course. I have a thorough idea of his range of motion now.”

Erwin sighed inwardly but left her to her machinations. Mike and a couple others were the only ones in the mess hall now, but Mike rose to get Erwin a tray and they were alone by the time he returned to the table. Levi greedily pulled a thick slice of turkey his way and sat contently, munching away. A warm, rosy hue began to flush his cheeks as his belly filled.

“What was Hange trying to get him for when you checked on him?” he asked Mike, who sipped tranquilly at a mug of coffee.

“I think she wanted to cut his hair. At least, she was holding scissors, but with those ears and living in the Underground, I can understand his aversion.” As if to test his theory, Mike reached a gentle finger towards one of Levi’s ears. Before he could reach, though, Levi smacked his appendage aside with an audible SLAP!

“No,” he scolded lividly.

Mike laughed, theatrically shaking the pain from his finger. “Ouch, he’s strong,” he teased. Levi kept his glare trained on him while he wiped gravy from his cheeks.

Usually at this time, Mike asked Erwin to join him for a drink in the pub down the road, but tonight he refrained, no doubt sensing that Levi would not allow another period of separation or tolerate the rowdiness of the pub while under Erwin’s cloak. So Erwin wished his friend good night and climbed the stairs to his room, eager for a bath. What little hot water there was went into the sink for a small bath for Levi; Erwin didn’t mind the cool temperature of his own bath so long as the day’s grime washed from his body.

Levi splashed pleasantly in the sink while Erwin scrubbed a cloth over his shoulders, neck and down over his collarbone toward his stomach. He leaned forward and washed the oily soap from his hair, tipping his head to make sure the water was out of his ears before pulling the drain plug.

Like the night before, Levi waited silently until Erwin was finished with his paperwork, only this time it went longer than usual. Somewhere behind him, he registered the sound of Levi yawning but he thought nothing of it until he heard quietly, “Erwin.”

His head whirled around, meeting Levi’s exhausted, annoyed gaze. “Bed,” he complained.

Erwin suppressed a smile and aligned his papers on the table before crossing the room. He was not finished quite yet, so he brought them with him as he settled with the pillows supporting his spine. Levi climbed over a muscled thigh, ducking under the papers to demand Erwin’s undivided attention.

Setting the papers down, he let his hands come up to support the small body balanced on his leg. Erwin’s fingers started near the base of Levi’s spine, feeling the taut muscles from using and controlling his tail. Pressing his fingertips into Levi’s back and gently moving in circles, he massaged the tension as he moved up the spine, finishing with the muscles that supported his neck and head. Levi yawned again, revealing tiny teeth that include canines that were obviously sharper than most people’s. His head fell onto Erwin’s open palm, letting the man cradle the side of his skull.

Erwin let his fingers continue their spiraling circles up Levi’s nape and into his scalp. Recalling Mike’s hunch, he delicately pressed the pads of his fingers behind Levi’s ears, feeling the sensitive muscles there.

At his touch, Levi’s body went iron rod straight, and just as quickly melted so his head fell against Erwin’s sternum with a soft thunk. And just like that, Levi was sound asleep.

Erwin continued reading through his documents, glancing down only when he noticed one of Levi’s ears positioned against his chest, as if listening to his heart beating. Shadis’s warning reverberated in his skull, and Erwin thought he might be beginning to understand how in over his head he was. But he stymied his concerns by reminding himself that he was only acting commander now, and if he couldn’t do that while taking care of Levi, than he had no right to actually be Commander Smith later on. With that reassurance and determination in mind, he snuffed out the candle, setting the papers aside, and drifting to sleep with Levi on his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next update probably won't happen for another day or so. Sorry for another boring chapter but I promise the next two will have major plot developments ;) Thanks for sticking with me this far!


	5. Masquerade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Levi's body begins to grow, so does Erwin's influence in the Corps, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, guys, there isn't actually a ball or masquerade in this chapter, but hey, maybe sometime in the future ;) Enjoy!

Like clockwork, Erwin’s eyes opened as the first rays of light filtered through his window. His mind rebelled consciousness, having gone to sleep barely three hours previously, but it also refused to shut back down. He felt Levi’s weight on his chest as if they had never moved, and fumbled with Levi’s legs to cradle him better.

Except Levi’s legs were a bit longer than what he remembered.

Erwin’s eyes popped wide open and absorbed the small child flopped across his torso. A small drool stain was soaking over his left lung, but that wasn’t what unnerved him.

“Levi,” he exclaimed, simply because he had no idea what else to say. One of his ears swiveled to face him and slowly, the boy began to rouse. Groggy eyes lifted to focus on his startled face, and Erwin was shocked by how much definition his face now had. The cheeks were still roundish but the mouth was wider, his eyes more defined, and his nose no longer of button quality.

Levi yawned and sat up to straddle Erwin’s diaphragm. His rib gave a twinge of pain, inducing him to sit up and shift Levi to his lap instead. The bandana had come undone in the night and was now barely wrapped around Levi’s hips. Erwin knew it would not suffice as raiment any longer and easily undid the last knot holding it around Levi’s leg. He pondered a moment, and decided one of Hange’s shirts could be folded to fit him.

Erwin felt a little uncomfortable carrying a naked child through the barracks, but it was the best time to get Hange’s shirt while everyone else was asleep. He noticed the trail of soft hair that had previously connected the nape of Levi's scalp to his tail was now gone. Did Levi’s tail look shorter? Or was it just because his body was longer?

“Hange!” he tried knocking quietly, but gradually increased the volume. “Hange! Wake up! It’s time for Levi’s checkup!”

The door swung open to reveal a disheveled woman with crooked spectacles and unruly auburn hair. She wiped drool off her chin and adjusted the goggles before her eyes widened. Before she could scream, squeal, or anything, Erwin requested, “Can Levi borrow one of your shirts? Mine would swallow him.”

She nodded silently and moved aside for them to enter. Erwin could feel Levi cringe at the scent of her room: a mixture of residue lab chemicals, overpowering lemon, and simply Hange. Levi leaned into Erwin’s broad chest, planting his nose alongside his neck for something better to smell.

“Second middle drawer,” Hange directed while she pulled on her boots before realizing she was still wearing her flannel pants. Erwin set Levi down and opened the drawer indicated, shifting through the unusually folded shirts. Levi soon took over and withdrew a shirt at the very bottom that agreed with his clean standards. Erwin knelt to help him into the garment, buttoning it up so it fell to Levi’s knees and then folding the sleeves up.

“Aw, he looks rather dashing,” Hange approved behind them. “Just straighten the collar to the left.”

Erwin did so and turned around to thank her but his jaw dropped instead. “Hange, don’t you think it’s inappropriate to change in front of your captain?”

“Hmm?” she asked, as if she hadn’t quite heard him. “Really? I knew you weren't interested in boobs, Erwin, but I didn't think you were afraid of them.”

He felt like he’d just been splashed by cold water. “Excuse me?”

She shrugged. “I may spend my time in a lab, but I know the gossip around here, and you are strangely lacking any. Women talk, and they have a lot to say about you, but none of it ever has real experience behind it, you know? I figured we weren’t your type. Plus the way Mike flirts with you…”

“Mike and I aren’t together,” he clarified quickly.

“Of course not. He’s been flirting hard-core with one of the new recruits,” she waved the matter away while she finished buttoning her own shirt and turned down the wrinkled collar. “I’m not about to burst any of the ladies’ bubbles, but I must say, if you ever decide to swing their way, you’ll have a plethora to choose from. When was the last time you were with someone?”

“That’s not appropriate,” he scolded lightly, not really bothered but trying to maintain his dignity as Captain Smith.

Hange rolled her eyes. “Nothing about this moment is appropriate. Humor me. What was he like?”

Erwin sighed, quickly calculating that they had at least another half hour before the workday started. He relented, “She.”

Her slim brows lifted. “Oh! So you do fancy the female species too?”

Erwin relinquished a laugh. “You’re not so different from men. Different parts and priorities sometimes, but you’re all lovely.”

Hange paused, looking at him with a soft, curious expression. “That’s…that’s the nicest thing I think I’ve heard you say, Captain.”

He frowned. “Am I that bad?”

She pursed her lips as she yanked one boot on, followed by the other. “ ‘Bad’ is putting it harshly. Everyone has their masks. So tell me about her.”

Erwin crossed his arms, leaning his hips against the dresser as he decided how much to reveal. “We dated when I was a recruit to the Corps. She liked having the affections of a soldier, and I was infatuated with her in every way. In retrospect, I would not say we were in love by any means.”

Hange’s expression fell. “Why is that?”

He answered honestly, “I walked away from her too easily. I became fully devoted to the Corps, and when my affection for her ran out, there was nothing else tying me to her.”

It sounded cruel in his head as well as when he said it aloud, but it was the truth. Hange mildly surprised him by nodding understandingly. “Sometimes we’re with somebody only as long as we need them. What did she look like?”

He lifted his eyes toward the ceiling but not seeing it, letting his memory flood across his vision. “You know…I don’t fully remember. I remember hair as bright as the sun falling to her waist and how she complained about the curls when they tangled…and her eyes. She had eyes the color of whiskey.”

“Sounds delicious,” Hange murmured, tugging Erwin’s attention down to her.

“Now that you mention gossip, I can’t say any of the men have boasted about you in their beds. Not to your liking?”

She scoffed. “I don’t have time for penises or vaginas. There’s too much research to be done, and so much to learn.”

It was in that moment that Erwin learned what Hange’s mask was. She’d always worn her intelligence like a badge of honor, as well she should, but now he knew that she used her craving for knowledge as a shield.

“You have every right to be happy, Hange,” he uttered. “If someone can make you happy, let them do so.”

Her expression faltered, clearly taken aback. “Wow,” she said quietly. “Erwin Smith, the loneliest man, giving relationship advice.”

He frowned again. “The loneliest? Is that what people say about me?” He’d never particularly cared what was said about him, but hearing this said aloud made him realize that it was true. He was incredibly, indescribably lonely.

Hange spoke his thoughts when she stated, “No, it’s what I’m saying. Sure, you have Mike and you have me. You even have Shadis. But if you don’t put your penis in something soon, you may explode.”

Now that the sentimental bubble was obliterated, Erwin simply uttered, “Eloquent.”

Hange smiled. “I do have a way with words when it suits me. What about your last boyfriend?”

Erwin shrugged, the memory even further back in his mind. “Blonde. Freckly. Good singer.”

Hange laughed merrily. “You and Mike, I swear. Blondes chasing blondes. Birds of a feather.”

“Well we are the Wings of Freedom,” Erwin quipped dryly, eliciting a shrill cry of glee from Hange. “Alright, alright, I’m famished and Mike is probably tired of holding a table for us.”

He turned toward the door to leave, but found that Levi had at some point climbed to sit on top of the dresser. Except he was not so much sitting on it as he was curled into a weak fetal position.

“Levi?” he exclaimed, pressing his hand to Levi’s face and neck to gauge his temperature. Hange was immediately up on her feet, inspecting him as well.

“Where does it hurt, sweetie?” she cooed.

His breath shook as he answered, “Everywhere.”

Erwin blinked at the developed sound of Levi’s voice but Hange registered something else. “I think…I think he’s experiencing growing pains.”

The notion was not far fetched at all, but when Levi barely suppressed a whimper, Erwin carefully scooping him off the dresser. “He needs nourishment, then. Let’s go.”

Sure enough, Mike was already fork-deep inside his eggs when they entered the mess hall. He instantly read the situation and asked, “What’s wrong with the cat?”

“Growing pains!” Hange chimed with a smile before marching off to get two trays.

“I can see that,” Mike observed, staring at Levi cuddled against Erwin’s chest. “If some groans and whimpers were all it took to get that close to you, I’d have started bawling years ago.”

“Mike,” Erwin frowned pointedly.

He laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ve moved past it.” He turned toward the kitchen and called. “Hange! Don’t forget milk!”

“Roger!” she called, returning a moment later with two trays, one of which balanced a tall glass of milk. “Here you go, Levi, and it’s not because you have a tail. You need the calcium.”

Levi all but dunked his face into the glass as Erwin held both him and the cup steady.

“Slowly, soldier,” Mike chuckled. “You don’t want a stomach ache, too.” Levi came up for air and a small belch sounded, his ears drooping. Mike held out a customary strip of bacon. “Chin up, little man. Your big blonde has you covered.”

Levi fell back on his rear end, his back supported by Erwin’s chest. Hange giggled, looking between him and Mike. “Exactly to which blonde are you referring?”

Mike looked down at his food, shoveling a new bite onto his fork with a solemn focus. “Doesn’t matter, does it?”

Erwin looked up, his mouth too full to thank Mike properly. It hadn’t registered to him that Mike might feel just as responsible for Levi since he was there when Isabel and Farlan were murdered. He recognized the silence Mike was exuding, the silence that was so contrary to the usually obnoxious teasing he did. They were fresh in the Corps, back from their first excursion beyond the walls when Mike had first gone silent, watching the flames of funeral pyres reach for the stars.

Erwin had just learned both of his friends’ masks, but instead of intense gratitude or kinship, he felt constricting guilt. Because his last relationship was actually with an unforgettable brunette woman married to a prominent commander he called friend. Because Mike’s first love had been a similarly brunette, male soldier in the Corps, whom he’d been forced to watch get torn apart as piece by piece of him got eaten. Erwin felt like he was using his friends’ weaknesses to his advantage. Hange trusted him under false intimacy and Mike subconsciously wanted to protect Levi because he was reminded of someone he had not been able to save.

“Erwin?” Hange called. Erwin snapped out of his reverie to find both her and Mike watching him closely. “You okay?” she asked.

I don’t deserve them, he thought to himself, but in the back of his mind, a familiar darkness squirmed, greedily taking the help where he found it, regardless of honor or courtesy. His better half feared how that shadow would grow and feed once he was Commander Smith, in charge of hundreds of lives at his disposal.

But he slipped his mask on, and nodded. “Just thinking about the rest of the day. Mike, do you need help with the recruits?”

“No, I’ll be glad to handle them,” the man smiled mischievously, obviously with one trainee in mind. “But what are you going to do with Levi? You’ve got four meetings today, don’t you?”

Erwin reluctantly nodded. “Two here and then two downtown. Some monetary benefactors want to take a look around the place before they hand over their coin, and the others simply need reassurance that once Shadis is gone, the Survey Corps’ members have brains in their heads.”

Mike sniffed sharply while Hange openly scoffed. “Sounds fucking delightful. Should I keep my skull sawed open in case they want to come by and see for themselves?”

Levi’s ears flattened at the very notion and Erwin laughed. “No, no, but you know how bureaucrats are. It’s a wonder they ventured so far from their elitist capitol when the commander went there himself just yesterday.”

“It’s because they know you’re next in line for the job,” Hange exclaimed with a beaming smile. Mike mirrored a subtler version, which only made Erwin’s heart constrict tighter.

“You both know you’re equally capable—”

“Shut up,” Hange curtailed. “Of course we know, but you couldn’t pay me to be commander. I’d have an aneurism and Mike would simply walk out the door. But you, you can not only do it, you’ll be damn good at it. Any man brave enough to enter my room, let alone my lab even if he just wants to borrow a shirt is okay in my book.”

Mike’s brow furrowed, his eyes locking on Erwin. “What lunacy compelled you to go in her room?”

“Levi needed something to wear,” he defended weakly.

Mike shook his head disapprovingly. “You should disinfect yourself.”

Hange hacked on her orange juice before iterating, “Um, I know hygiene when it's convenient! You didn’t even smell me on Erwin when he walked in, did you? Or on Levi’s shirt!”

“That’s because it’s not your shirt,” Mike informed, a smug glint forming in his eye. “It’s Petra’s.”

Erwin’s gaze rotated to see the rich blush rising from Hange’s collar to her hairline. “Petra, huh? When did that happen?”

“A while ago. Petra’s moved on to Auruo,” Mike informed.

“This is what I miss when I’m doing my job?” Erwin teased, eliciting a fiery glare from the woman.

“Fuck both of you very much,” she spat.

Mike and Erwin guffawed before forkfuls of food kept them from doing so. Erwin reached for the glass of milk since Levi was other wise preoccupied with his bacon, and gulped half the glass. He hadn't realized how thirsty he was, but the realization was dashed from his thoughts as Levi leaned up to lick an errant drop of milk from the corner of Erwin's mouth.

Hange and Mike exchanged silent glances before resuming their own meals, like they didn't see anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who's been with me and this story so far. I love all the kudos and comments you guys are leaving me; it's so appreciated :)


	6. Mortified

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is proving harder and harder to keep Levi a secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, I had withdrawals from not giving you guys a chapter update. Read on and prosper!

It was not until the end of the day when Erwin's work was finished and he could be reunited with Levi that Levi’s pains began to subside, and over the course of the night he’d grown another four inches. Hange was beside herself, but to Erwin's puzzlement, she was beginning to grow bored.

“Eventually he’s going to stop growing, right?” she reasoned. “But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that he can still function when that happens. Some people shoot up and suddenly they forget how their body works, so we have these gangly, awkward people walking around like miniature titans.”

“So you do want to go through with the obstacle course,” Erwin deduced over lunch. He rarely ate a midday meal, but she’d been kind enough to bring him a sandwich, and swore that she had not tampered with the ingredients. “Where is Levi right now?”

“Mike has him,” she replied offhandedly. “On the grounds.”

The sandwich paused midair, not quite reaching Erwin’s mouth. “With the trainees?”

“No, the wimps kept slipping and sliding all over the place because of the rain. Only Mike’s beau made any real progress, but that might be because he gives him so much special treatment…”

Erwin trusted Mike with Levi’s care, but he was still concerned. “You’re not worried about his immune system? Growth spurts and rain don’t bode well.”

She sat on the corner of his desk, gazing out the window while she scoffed. “If he could handle Underground germs, he’ll be fine. And if he isn’t, I’ll heal him. No problem—ah!”

Erwin turned to find her staring out the window. “What’d you see?”

“I-I…I’m not sure,” she breathed, and then nearly jumped out of her skin. “LEVI!”

Erwin’s pen fell out of his hand as he followed her line of sight and saw Levi hanging upside-down, peering into the room. Without thinking, Hange flicked the latch, gripped the sill, and hoisted the window up. However, Levi was anchoring himself on the frame, so when the window slid up, effectively dislodging his hands, gravity took control.

Hange screamed, covering her mouth as Erwin shot out of his chair, but Levi flipped his body over in midair so his feet landed on the windowsill and his body crouched for his hands to firmly grip the interior. Soaking wet, he began to climb into Erwin’s office the same moment Mike’s 3DMG grapples landed on either side of the window and the man himself gripped the pair of Hange’s pants belted and folded to accommodate Levi's legs.

“Done already?” he jibed.

“MIKE!” Hange fired. “Have you been out there since I left him with you? That was three hours ago!”

“Relax, Zoe,” he cooed, giving Levi a helpful shove into the room. By that time, Erwin had a towel ready to catch him. “He’s fine. He just heard you yammering to the captain and couldn’t help himself.”

Hange opened her mouth but Erwin spoke first. “You should get inside and use the hot water before someone else does, Mike. I can’t afford you becoming ill.”

Mike rolled a shoulder in a shrug. “I’m not bothered. I have the immune system of a shark.”

Hange grimaced. “What does that even mean?”

Mike only tapped his nose mischievously and flew out of sight. Erwin settled in his chair while tucking Levi’s skinny legs underneath the towel. His ears fluttered, lightly spraying water in Erwin’s face before nuzzling his collarbone and seeking the cradle of warmth by his neck and underneath his chin.

Hange shut the window and remembered, “I meant to ask how your meetings went yesterday. Is money still being thrown at us?"

“For the time being,” Erwin confirmed.

Hange sensed his thoughts and voiced, “What can we do to keep funds coming?”

Levi was very still in his arms as he answered, “Shadis will take care of things in the capitol but in the long run…I don’t know. I am in communication with Commander Pixis for input on how the Garrison operates their treasury. He has been helpful, but people are simply more willing to fund activities inside the walls. As soon as any word suggests going outside them, wallets close.”

“Pixis…” Hange mused, rolling the name in her mouth. “Now that’s my kind of man.”

Erwin peered at her from under his brows. “He’s old enough to be your father....and bald.”

“I didn’t say I was interested in getting his pants off! It’s just that he has the right kind of intellect for this obscene world. The bastard knows how to tell a joke and laugh at it.”

She was interrupted by Mike leaving a trail of water into the room. Erwin was less concerned with the state of his wood floors than he was about the man’s health. “Mike, if your nose clogs with phlegm, you’re damn near to useless to me.”

“Never mind that I can fly circles around you,” he countered easily, not bothered in the least. “But I saw the carriage out front. It’s a weak day to give a tour of the place, don’t you think?”

Erwin frowned, puzzled. “This is a military base. We don’t just give tours, and there certainly isn’t one scheduled—”

The office door burst open again to reveal the two faces he’d had to deal with yesterday for four hours downtown. He was deeply disgruntled by having to deal with the arrogant, posh elitists without warning, but his face quickly morphed into vacant shock. He exchanged a glance at Mike, and then Hange, both of them mirroring his agape expression until their eyes fell on Levi, still huddled on Erwin’s lap in plain view. Luckily, the towel was draped over his head like a hood, covering his large ears. Erwin discretely set him on his feet but kept the towel bound around him, so his tail remained inconspicuous.

“Captain Smith!” the intruding man boomed, sweeping his arm in a welcoming gesture despite it not being his office. Behind him, a woman with fake red hair piled on top of her head beamed. “We didn’t know you had meetings with both of us yesterday! I ran into this lovely lady just this morning and we discovered we were both craving to see more of the Survey Corps.”

The lady spoke next. “It’s so silly that Shadis left when we were en route here, and our time yesterday was too short.”

Not short enough, Erwin growled inwardly. Two hours of the flamboyant man followed by another two with the woman who seemed more interested in shamelessly flirting instead of discussing a remotely decent topic had drained him entirely.

The man’s eyes fell on Levi behind the desk. “Oh! Recruiting them a bit early, don’t you think, Captain?” He chortled a ho ho ho laugh. Erwin wondered if the buttons of his blue damask waistcoat would burst from his girth.

Mike came to his rescue. “He might be small enough to go unnoticed by a titan, but we don’t send them out this soon,” he quipped, rounding the desk to usher Levi by his hip as they made their way to the door.

“Oh my…you’re Zakarias, aren’t you?” the woman breathed. Erwin recognized the tone she thought was seductive. It sounded more asthmatic. “You’re absolutely drenched!”

As much of a nuisance as they were, it would not be helpful to Erwin or the Corps’ finances for him to be rude. He paused obligingly, but his nose twitched, an involuntary mannerism Erwin knew meant that he found both her body and personality a stench.

“Well it is raining,” he said flatly.

She giggled in such a way that made Erwin suppress a cringe. Hange was not as skilled and visibly blanched. Erwin had to take control of the situation before it spiraled out of control. “Why don’t we wait an hour while I walk you through a blueprint of the grounds?” he offered, praying that his sanity would not crack under an hour’s time. He gestured to the bookshelf behind them by the door. “I’ll just retrieve it…”

He looked down as he pressed his hands to the desk as he stood, but when his eyes lifted, Levi was jumping silently down from the shelves, using them like ladder rungs. The man and woman did not even notice until he held the tome out to them, prodding the woman’s hip with it.

She let out a high-pitched sound of glee and surprise. “You little monkey! Did you get that all by yourself?”

The only feature on Levi to move were his eyes widening. Erwin suavely and quickly stepped around his desk as the man took the massive volume from Levi’s small hands. Erwin approached just in time to catch it when it fumbled in the man’s weak grip.

He harrumphed indignantly, defending, “It’s heavier than I anticipated. He’s quite strong…ahem, your nephew, perhaps, Zakarias?”

Mike looked like he was using every ounce of his considerable strength not to burst out laughing. “Yes…” he said slowly. “My nephew. Come along, nephew. Let the adults play.”

Erwin was grateful he ushered Levi out of the room before the boy’s anger snapped. After an hour of explaining how a blueprint worked instead of what was actually on it, Erwin made excuses for the rain not letting up and the tour having to be postponed indefinitely. Hopefully forever.

As he escorted them back to the drive under their umbrellas, the woman exclaimed, “What was Zakarias’s nephew doing in your office, Captian?”

“A temporary visit,” he lied easily. “It was Squad Leader Mike’s day off, and with the rain, it was no trouble to keep him on base.”

“You should keep him around,” the man suggested from inside the carriage. “If his strength grows with his size, who knows what he could be capable of. Get them while they’re young, Captain!”

Erwin humored him with a chuckle but found the idea of brainwashing children for the Corps’ use revolting. “Safe journey,” he returned, gratefully shutting them within the carriage.

He found Levi still fuming in the copper bathtub, his body so submerged that only his nose, upward, was visible. Only his eyes moved when Erwin rapped on the doorframe, flashing a silver glare in his direction. He came to sit on the lip of the tub, slowly reaching out in such a way that gave Levi time to decline his touch. But he remained where he was, knees drawn up to his chest beneath the water while he allowed Erwin to stroke his fingers between his ears, combing the wet tresses off his face.

“Don’t let what they said bother you.”

Levi moved, then, causing the water to rustle as he turned his face away. “Called me a monkey,” he reiterated. “Stupid woman.”

Erwin huffed a laugh through his nose, letting his hand drop to the edge of the tub. “Yes, she is, so you shouldn’t let what she said get to you. Her brainless words have no right to your thoughts.”

“I’ve been called worse,” Levi muttered. “But a monkey…it's been a long time since I felt this mortified.”

His brows lifted at Levi’s vocabulary. Even more so was he stunned by his complete ability to speak. He recalled Shadis saying he was likely older than he looked, so Erwin had to ask, “How old are you, Levi?”

Once again, only his eyes lifted to meet his gaze. “What does it matter?”

Erwin shook his head. “It doesn’t, I suppose…do you know?”

“Of course I know,” Levi snapped softly. “They told me.”

A moment of silence passed before he phrased his next question. “Was she really your sister?”

Levi’s eyelashes slowly drooped and then he shook his head. “But she might as well have been.”

Erwin nodded, “I understand.”

The water trilled as Levi moved, peering up at Erwin with an unreadable expression. “What will you do for money?”

He felt his placid expression harden on his face as he said, “You needn’t worry about that.”

“Am I to join the Corps?”

Erwin wasn’t sure how well a soldier with an extra set of ears and a tail would go over, but he silenced his reservations and replied, “That will be your choice when the time comes.”

“Erwin.” Levi stared at him as if he was not being given the right answer. “How much money could you make by placing me in a city square with a bucket for coins?”

He felt like his mask had just been ripped off to be replaced by pure hatred for how society would use Levi as a laughing stock or an exhibit for amusement…or both. Erwin turned to face Levi more fully, his arm leaning across the surface of the water to grip the opposite edge so they could face one another.

“I will never use you in that way, Levi. I will never place a coffer’s tin around your neck or sell you. There isn’t a sum large enough to buy you anyhow.”

Levi’s features stiffened but his ears betrayed him by drooping close to his scalp in a shy, bashful gesture. Erwin noticed that his knees were now poking through the surface of the water; two pale islands on which Levi let his chin rest. Erwin poked his fingertips into the water and said disapprovingly, “Have you been in there the whole hour I was busy? I’ll get a towel.”

“I haven’t washed my hair, yet,” Levi rejected.

“Where is the soap?”

He looked across the room where the moisturizing shampoo rested above the sink. Erwin frowned at him but went to collect the bottle. “Lean your head forward. I don’t want to get soap in your ears.”

Levi did so, letting Erwin lather the shampoo in his hands before carefully working it along the edges of his hairline and between his ears. After a while he redirected, “Lean back,” and supported Levi’s neck and skull while he gently rubbed along the muscles behind his ears. They twitched briefly, until his pressure increased and Levi’s entire body relaxed, his head totally supported by Erwin’s strong hands.

“Haaah,” he exhaled, unbeknownst to himself. Erwin observed his eyelashes flutter in time with the massaging circles his fingers were taking. It astounded him just how much tension was in such a small body until it was so entirely alleviated.

One of the ears abruptly swiveled toward the door, and a second later Erwin heard Hange strolling into his room. “Erwin! Where are you?”

“Do you mind?” he asked Levi quietly, to which he was answered with a careless shrug. “In the bathroom!”

Of course she did not ask what he was doing or if he was alone, but swung right in. “Well, aren’t you a domestic pair.”

He scooped water into his palm to wash over Levi’s scalp. “What do you need?”

She instantly raised a hand to count off with her fingers, “I need new dress boots for my uniform, a new brush because the other burned in the lab…a comb for you, an adjustable suit for Levi since he’s already three inches taller than he was an hour ago—”

“Hange,” he interrupted. “Why would Levi need a suit?”

With a flourish, she whipped out a torn open envelope, wax seal flapping with a familiar sigil. “Commander Nile and Marie Dok formally invited you, a plus one, and your Squad Leaders to a party!”

Erwin’s fingers stilled in Levi’s hair. Hange kept talking but he felt frozen in time as well as place, or to use Levi’s uncannily choice words, mortified.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, about that masquerade ;)


	7. Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Funny how masks work. They trick people into being themselves. They think they can hide behind the mask like it’s a shield. Once their true self comes out, so do their secrets.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, this is a long one, but here goes nothing :)

“Hange, you are aware that Levi is going to stand out,” Erwin informed pointedly. “Never mind the fact that you opened a senior officer’s mail without permission—how do you expect that I will be able to take Levi as a plus one? An officers’ party is no place for children!”

“There will be officers' kids there!” she piped defensively. “It says so on the invite, ‘an occasion to remember who we fight for.’ Which is a load of crap. It’s a giant fundraiser and their using their kids to milk the profits, but who cares! The aristocrats liked him enough, maybe Levi could turn a few purses our way!”

“No,” he countered firmly. “I promised him I would not use him like that.”

Hange rolled her eyes. “Then bring him along for his sanity! He can’t stay cooped up here anymore! A bird’s gotta fly! Or a cat’s gotta prowl…whatever, I think he will really enjoy the outing.”

Deciding to humor her, Erwin inquired, “And how do you suggest on keeping his feline attributes a secret?”

“With a hat, obviously,” she scoffed. “A nice little velvet thing…maybe with a grey feather to match his eyes. Aren’t pageboys wearing those slouchy caps nowadays? That should cover the ears, right?”

“Right,” Erwin said, “except he’s neither a pageboy, nor is this a party which pageboys attend.”

“That’s why it will be VELVET!” she repeated haughtily.

“What is velvet?” Levi asked from the bed. She and Erwin glanced at him from their stance before Erwin’s closet.

“It’s the sound of this blonde’s voice in fabric form,” Hange quipped, beaming with pride at her own statement.

Erwin rubbed his eyes almost to the point of pain. “He will likely grow over the course of the evening. We can’t purchase anything that will fit him."

“Belts are adjustable,” she reasoned, “and we can roll up the pant legs up for the start of the party, and roll them down as he grows. No one’s going to care that a kid hasn’t got a tailored suit. But don’t you worry about the growth spurts. I’ll take care of that. I’ve taken the necessary precautions.”

For a split second, Erwin imagined what horrific methods could be used to stunt his growth but reassured himself that as mad as Hange was, she was not cruel. “What sort of precautions?” he asked, but then Mike once again breezed into his space without knocking. “Is officer protocol just a suggestion to you two?”

Mike sniffed. “What’s got you in a funk?” He hopped and let his body fall horizontally across the bed next to Levi. The weight of the large man caused Levi to bounce unceremoniously before he lunged at Mike’s facial hair. Mike laughed, catching Levi and flipping him over, thoroughly ruining Erwin’s made bed as they wrestled.

“Ooo! How ‘bout this?” Hange redirected, wriggling free a suit that had been crammed into the back of the closet. It was a crisp black number, with a white dress shirt that needed ironing and some threads were frayed along the satin bowtie, but otherwise it was in good shape.

Erwin frowned. “I thought we were wearing our uniforms. You said you needed dress boots.”

Levi and Mike’s rumblings reverberated behind them as Hange fixed him with a bored stare. “Did you even bother to read the invite? It’s a costume party! I’m going as a classier version of myself! Knee high dress boots with a longer version of our uniform skirts, complete with suspenders to look like the harness!” She winked.

Mike spoke up while Levi was angrily pinned under his chest. “There will be a top to that ensemble, yes?”

“It will just have to be a surprise, won’t it,” she fired back, earning a shocked look from Mike. Levi took advantage and slammed the man onto his back.

“Let me see that,” Erwin declared, taking the invitation from her. It read:

Mr. & Mrs. Commander Nile and Marie Dok  
formally invite you to their annual masquerade ball!  
Themed attire is requested and you may bring your own mask or one will be provided for you upon entering.  
Please join us in celebrating another year of peace as well as looking forward to another. Join us in this occasion to remember who we fight for.

Erwin wondered who the hell wrote this up because it certainly was not Nile. He raised the stationary to his nose, breathing a slightly sweet, but not overpowering musk. His attention was sidetracked by Hange pondering, “Actually, since it’s costume oriented, Levi might not even need—”

“He wears the hat,” Erwin declared sharply and then added, “You two! Knock it off before you break my bed frame!”

Levi and Mike broke apart, both red in the face as the latter commented, “Sounds like Levi’s going, though. What a lovely family affair.” He hooked Levi in the crook of his elbow, but in a flash of movement, Levi ducked his head kicked Mike off the bed. He resumed his original place against the pillows, huffing a discontented breath.

The feeling was mutual with Erwin. It was going to be a long weekend.

 

Levi took one look at the carriage and said flatly, “No.”

“Come on!” Hange whined. “It will be fun. You’ll get to see how the other side lives. There will be food, drink—”

“He can’t drink, Hange,” Mike curtailed, causing the vehicle to shift under his weight as he stepped inside it.

She raised an eyebrow and leaned down to murmur in Levi’s ear, “Maybe not, but you’ll see that one drunk.” She peered keenly at Erwin, who was speaking with the driver. “He looks just about due for a drink as it is. Mike’s told me stories about his tolerance, but I wonder if he’s a flirtatious drunk.”

Levi jerked slightly, stepping away from her. “You’re an idiot.”

She puffed a lip out. “Don’t be mean, Levi. I know your secret.”

Unfazed, he returned, “You’ll have to be more specific.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed, pleasantly taken aback. “So mysterious! Well, I was referring to the one where you—”

“Ready to leave?” Erwin called.

“Almost!” Hange chirped, and quickly leaned further into Levi’s side to whisper so only his keen ears could hear, “where you want Erwin to own you, deep inside.”

Levi stood like a statue, silent until he uttered slowly. “Step away from me.”

Hange’s smile faltered, and he tipped his chin to look her in the eyes, adding menacingly, “Or I’ll break those shitty goggles into your eyes.”

She carefully stood erect, leaning away and not entirely sure how to proceed. “This isn’t the Underground, Levi,” she said weakly.

“Nor is it any of your business,” he finished.

Hange scratched her chin, but with nothing else to say, she ducked into the carriage. Erwin finally approached and as he was inhaling to speak, Levi declared, “I’m not getting in that thing.”

The blonde gazed down at him. “Why not?”

Levi spoke so softly Erwin almost missed it: “It’s a cage.”

He looked at the vehicle with fresh eyes, observing that from Levi’s perspective, it was indeed a confining box. “Just an overnight one, and cages are better with company, surely.”

Levi turned away to scoff, but his gaze locked on another carriage rolling up along the drive. It came to a halt right before them as Mike and Hange’s drove away. The driver did not even bother coming down from his perch; instead he swung a cane at the door, hooking it on the door handle and twisting it easily to reveal an empty interior. Levi lifted blank, questioning eyes to Erwin.

A small grin flashed on his handsome face. “Did you think I was going to force you to share a carriage with three other people? The road to Sina is a bumpy one; I won’t have you bruised between Mike’s shoulders and Hange’s elbows.”

The hood of the Survey cloak Levi was wearing drooped as his ears flattened against his scalp. Without another word, he climbed into the carriage, immediately shoving the interior curtains aside to let in the last rays of day. Erwin opened one of the small glass panels to keep a breeze and rapped his knuckles against the roof to let the driver know they were ready.

The carriage lurched forward, throwing Levi against Erwin’s hip as he stood to unfold the benches that closed together to form a bed. He heard the air rush out of Levi’s chest and carefully set him by the open window to replenish. When Erwin retrieved the pillows from the overhead racks and settled down, exhaustion crashed into him, causing his next exhale to come out in a heavy rush.

This is a horrible idea, his thoughts chided. He should have declined the invitation. Nile would understand; Erwin was acting commander while Shadis was away, with an expedition to plan, recruits to train, a military base to upkeep, all while playing the aristocrats’ game for their entertainment. An evening of people wearing more masks than they already were held no interest to him.

He realized the invitation was still in his jacket pocket when Levi pressed his cheek against it. He sat up abruptly at the crinkle sound and Erwin shrugged off the garment and also took the moment to remove his boots. He reached up briefly to grab a blanket from the rack, and it practically unfolded on its way down. Levi molded himself to Erwin’s side again as he adjusted the cloth around them, and something about holding the soft, fragile body helped Erwin’s concerns ebb away.

Knock! Knock! Knock! “Captain? We’re here.”

A blue eye cracked open as his ears slowly registered the sounds of urbanity outside the carriage. He sat up to find his boots and jacket, but his eyes alighted on the figure peeking out the window beside him.

“Levi…you’re practically a teenager,” he analyzed. True enough; Levi was skinnier than ever, exhibiting the oddly malnourished look preteens tended to have before the chaos of hormones, mental instability, and the final growth spurts of their teens commenced.

Grey eyes reflected silver light back at him. “I’m older than that,” he said flatly.

Erwin raised curious eyebrows but said nothing in exchange for donning his jacket and folding up the bed. They were parked in front of an inn, and he could see Mike reaching toward the sky, popping his shoulders while Hange spoke animatedly with their intimidated driver.

“Hange,” he called. “Pay the man and let’s get going.”

“I was just discussing improvements to the axis and wheel rotations that would ease passenger comfort and quicken travel time!”

“Save it for the ride home. We’re having a luncheon with Shadis and Nile and then we have to prepare for this evening.”

“Do I sense resentment in that tone, Captain?”

Erwin turned to see Nile Dok striding up to him with Commander Shadis close behind him. The latter spoke with mild amusement, “You know, if I had known most of my officers would follow me to the capitol, I never would have left.”

“He’s upset I beat him to the Commander position,” Nile teased smugly, as if Shadis hadn’t spoken.

“Soon enough,” Shadis smiled confidently. “This old man has to retire first. Shall we eat? For all the pomp, the portion sizes are minuscule here. I haven’t had a proper meal since I arrived.”

“Who’s this?” Nile intercepted, eyes falling on Levi.

“My nephew,” Mike chimed in, eliciting a sneer from Levi.

Nile gazed perplexedly between him and Mike. “You brought your nephew? Mike, you know my parties are hardly the environment for children.”

Erwin cast Hange a glare but she was too busy whistling while she found a particular shop window fascinating. Mike rolled a shoulder in a shrug. “He’s beyond his years. And his name is Levi, Nile, in case you feel like picking a fight, address him directly.”

Erwin self-consciously adjusted the velvet cap on Levi’s scalp while Nile examined him critically. “He’s too skinny. I’d break him the moment I touched him.”

“You could try,” Levi responded, so casually that Nile could not tell if he was making a jape or not. Erwin suppressed a smirk; anyone who could put Nile in his place was a good ally at a party.

The blonde salvaged the situation by ushering them in Shadis’s direction, where the smell of roasted meats and sweet things wafted across the street. The luncheon itself went smoothly enough, and before long Erwin was glaring at his bowtie in the mirror. He’d tied it twice and was having difficulty getting it straight on the third. Finally he jerked the satin end to unravel it and start again, but a hand entered the reflection of the mirror to grip the tie and yanked Erwin around to face Levi.

“Useless,” he muttered, deftly tying the sleek bow in one try.

Erwin chuckled, “It’s been a long time since I had to tie one. Thank you, Levi.”

He reached for the book of matches on the dresser of their room and scratched a stick across the sandpaper. He noticed Levi watching him as he burned away the stray threads of his tie and lapels. Turning, he adjusted the cap over his ears, fluffed the cool, grey feather that matched his eyes, and struck another match to touch up his lapels before staring at Levi’s neck.

“One moment, something’s missing.”

Erwin rummaged in his trunk. He took it everywhere with him but it so often fell to the bottom of his things…

Levi crooked an eyebrow at the long strip of cloth that was draped around his neck. His dark lashes dusted his cheeks as he watched Erwin’s fingers knot the cloth and fluff the length that remained to fall over his shirt buttons.

“Not bad…” Erwin approved. “It’s called a cravat. This one was actually my mother’s handkerchief that she gave to my father to wear. You are not a messy eater but stay away from Nile. The more he drinks, the larger a trail he leads.”

The corner of Levi’s mouth twitched, suggesting a smile, and Erwin realized he had yet to see such a thing on Levi’s face. “We needn’t remain the whole night. If at any point—”

“You have to attend to maintain relations,” Levi cut off. “Don’t piss anyone off. If I want to leave, I will.”

Erwin admired such independence but he reprimanded gently. “This city is dangerous at night if you’re alone. If you want to leave, come find me, Mike, or Hange first. Even Shadis.”

“I’m not a child, Erwin,” Levi declared quietly, but firmly.

“I know,” he replied, “but I want you safe.” He stood and looked Levi over, at the hem of his trouser legs rolled thrice as well as the cuffs of his dinner jacket. Overall, it looked intentional, and he looked quite dapper. “It’s time.”

Downstairs, Mike wore a similar suit but with a straight tie and Hange… Erwin’s eyes widened and he had to concentrate on the last step of the staircase to avoid tripping.

“Hange…”

She twirled around beaming. “I look GOOD, right?”

She did: the fabric of her skirt overlapped like their uniform’s did, but it revealed, quite to Erwin’s shock, that Hange had pert, round ass. Her satin suspenders crossed behind her back, over her shoulders, and clipped into the strapless top that also proved she had breasts. Of course, Erwin had seen those first hand, but their Survey uniform so concealed that she was female that it was unnerving to have all the facts made evident before his eyes. A sparkly half-mask was resting decoratively on her hair since her face was occupied by her glasses.

“And MIKE was afraid I’d be indecorous,” she teased, jabbing his ribs with her elbow.

“Never doubted you for a moment,” he defended mildly, feigning pain before he held the door open for them to exit. This time they all piled into a single carriage and knew they were almost arriving due to traffic slowing them down.

“Check out the view,” Mike suggested as he pointed to the long line of carriages on the Doks’ front lawn. One by one their occupants disembarked, and before long Erwin was stepping into the humble but refined foyer of Nile’s home. To their right was a cloakroom but straight ahead was a wide, grand staircase leading up to the ballroom. Under the myriad of perfumes, he could make out the scents of warm cheeses and meats.

“Mmm, lamb,” Mike hummed, sniffing as well. “You’ll know where to find me.”

“We have to be greeted by our hosts, first,” Erwin reminded, but he was smiling. He planned to spend more time with Mike by the buffet table once obligatory pleasantries were finished.

At the top of the stairs and just inside the ballroom, stood Commander Nile with his hair lightly combed back and a simple, silver unicorn brooch pinned to his lapel. He shook Mike’s hand first, slapping his back in a firm hug even though they’d eaten lunch together just hours previously. Nile then kissed the air beside Hange’s cheek, just as surprised as Erwin had been at her impeccably clean, feminine appearance, and then it was Erwin’s turn.

“Captain Smith,” Nile grinned, shaking his head.

“Just Erwin tonight,” he returned the smile.

“Alright, Just Erwin,” Nile quipped, and turned to the woman on his arm. “You remember Marie.”

Erwin certainly remembered Marie. He’d been strictly avoiding her gaze, avoiding even glancing at her arm entwined with Nile’s as he stood before them. But now he had to make eye contact, and warm, amber eyes locked on his blue ones, her smile nailing his heart to his ribcage. She was a robust woman with a strong chin, and she was just as stunning as she’d been so many years ago…

His eyes fell to the elegant collarbone that he could remember the taste of if he thought hard enough on it. The sleeves of her dress fell around her shoulders, framing and highlighting those clavicles as well as the soft, discrete mounds of her breasts. Her dress concealed her long legs but her narrow waist was apparent enough, still able to fit in both his hands nicely.

Something twitched in his peripheral vision and Erwin tore his gaze aside to find Levi staring up at him intently. He realized his heart was ramming against his lungs, and when Levi swiveled his head to look at Marie, he knew hers was as well.

Time to go, he alerted himself, and said aloud, “How could I forget. Nile should be just as grateful to have you as the last time I saw you. Now if you will excuse me, Mike will eat everything if I don’t rush.”

His fingers curled around Levi’s ribcage and steered him through the crowd to the long table stretched across the edge of the room. Mike had staked his claim on the rack of lamb but Erwin piled a small plate with sliced tomatoes and roast beef as he cast wary eyes on Levi.

“Levi…what you heard…” he began, but was not entirely sure how to finish.

“I don’t care that you lied to Hange,” Levi finished for him. “But it does question the integrity of everything else you’ve said.”

“I’ve never lied to you and I don’t intend to,” he answered sincerely while handing him a plate. Levi silently eyed assorted delicacies but took so long to choose that Erwin worried it was because of Erwin lying or because he was not interested in the food.

“Is that tea?” Levi asked abruptly.

Erwin surveyed the table and found the massive copper teapot with a small nozzle on the end of the spout for pouring tea. A silver one sat right next to it, offering coffee. “Yes…would you like a cup?”

“I’ve never had tea before,” he murmured, almost mesmerized. Erwin watched as he figured out the spout mechanism and held a small porcelain cup beneath the reddish liquid. Holding two hands beneath it like it was something precious, Levi deeply inhaled the white vapors coming off the surface and lowered his lips to taste right as a party guest barreled into him and the table.

The porcelain went clattering to land somewhere amongst the pies, but not before all of the scalding tea doused Levi’s face and front, mainly the cravat.

For a split second he stood in a daze, interpreting what had just happened before he rounded, fingers curled like claws and ready to tear at the drunkard. His chest slammed roughly against Erwin’s arm crossing before him, indignantly dragging Levi from the table and his potential prey.

He casually opened the door to the balcony despite the struggling Levi, although Erwin knew that if Levi truly wanted to be free he would have no difficulty managing it. With a huff, he let Erwin take him to the balcony’s edge, where he undid the cravat and wrung it out over the flagstones. Levi’s hands twisted the fabric and his elbows jerked in such a way that Erwin realized how distraught he was.

“Levi…Levi stop, it’s fine.”

“No it isn’t! You asked me to keep it clean,” he exclaimed in his quiet way. He tried to press the fabric to his jacket, hoping to make the fluid absorb into the jacket instead.

“Levi,” Erwin said softly, but forcefully. He cupped Levi’s chin and lifted so Levi was looking at him and not the stain. “It is just tea, and in the end, it is just a piece of cloth. What matters to me is that the tea was steaming when it splashed you. Were you burned?”

Levi jerked his chin away. “No I wasn’t burned, you fool.”

Erwin chuckled. “What makes me a fool? For caring?”

When he seemed like he was unwilling to answer, Erwin plucked the cap off his head, freeing his ears. Levi’s eyes widened. “What are you doing? I thought you didn’t want them to see me!”

Blue eyes narrowed on his. “Is that what’s bothering you? That I’m making you hide?”

Taken aback, Levi looked toward the door. “I’m upset at the one who pushed me.”

“Something has been bothering you for a while,” Erwin countered. “You’ve been acting differently. You don’t reach for me quite as you used to.”

His ears swiveled in opposite directions, as if both were trying to avoid the subject. He mumbled something, which Erwin didn’t catch, and he said as much. “Look at me when you speak. I want to hear you.”

He was answered with a silver glare, but before his mouth opened, Erwin’s attention was yanked toward Marie stepping onto the balcony. “Am I interrupting?” she asked congenially.

Erwin wasn’t sure if it was Levi making a “Tfft,” sound or the rustling of leaves in the bushes below. “No, we were just finished,” he told her while taking the cloth from Levi and folding it briefly before stuffing it in his pocket. After another moment Erwin remembered his cap, but Levi was already marching past Marie with it firmly placed on his scalp.

“Whew,” Marie chortled after he passed. “There’s a temper on that one.”

Perhaps it was the chilly breeze that went by right then, but Erwin felt like he’d been doused by cold water. “What are you doing, Marie?”

She focused intelligent brown eyes on him but inquired, “Doing?”

“Nile didn’t invite me here,” he explained tensely. “He never did, because he knows I do not care for these events. Why did you send me the invitation?”

“I wanted to see you,” she announced bluntly.

“Well, you shouldn’t.”

“I’m not asking to start up our affair again,” she defended coyly, and Erwin noticed she’d come closer to him than he’d realized.

“Good. Because it was foolish in the first place. You were engaged.”

“And now I’m married,” she agreed.

His eyes scanned over her, not aroused but analyzing. “What do you want, Marie?” He hoped he was imagining the husky tone his voice had taken.

“Closure,” she said quietly. “That’s all. I want to feel you one last time.”

“I won’t sleep with you, Marie,” he responded in a choked whisper, swallowing thickly. “I won’t do that to Nile again.”

“You assume too much, Erwin,” she chastised playfully. Her hand was on his lapel. “I just want…”

She leaned her chin up but Erwin grasped her shoulders lightly, holding her at a distance. “No.”

Her hand lifted to graze the edge of his blue, silver, and black mask, sending a tingle through his cheek. “Would you have ever let me under that tough, proper exterior you cling to?”

“I don’t wear a mask,” he declared. “This is who I am.”

“You’re a poor liar, but I never minded that. I hated that you never let me in.”

He inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. “There isn’t anything worth seeing. Nile deserves you. You deserve each other.”

“I don’t care what I deserve,” she chided. “I know what I want. And right now, I want for you to stop talking.”

 

Levi’s eyes widened. His ears twitched under his cap at the strange sound of lips clasping together before another sound jerked him out of his snooping.

“What’s up, kitten?” Mike chimed, his fingers leaving lamb chop grease on his champagne glass.

Levi tried to move away from the window without drawing attention to it. “People at this party smell.”

Mike barked a laugh. “You’re telling me.” But he watched Levi tread a little harder than normally away from the window overlooking the balcony over the gardens. Peeking through the glass, Mike saw a telltale blond head disengage from a brunette woman, the latter clasping his hand before heading back inside the party. Mike returned his gaze to Levi, wandering aimlessly around the party, simply avoiding bumping into people but not actually heading in any particular direction.

 

Erwin welcomed the libations side of the buffet with gusto as he tipped back two glasses of champagne in one breath. His hand was on a third when Commander Shadis commented. “Desperate times?”

Erwin poorly concealed a belch and responded, “Apologies, Commander. It seems alcohol is cheaper than water in Sina.”

Shadis could have very easily reminded him that there was a gargantuan pot of tea ready to hydrate him, but he simply smiled and approached with his own glass of whiskey. “Are the festivities not to your expectation?”

Erwin coughed uncomfortably. “Unfortunately, they are just as I expected.”

“That’s even worse, isn’t it?” Shadis teased, but Erwin found his third glass empty.

He glanced at the large clock on the wall, stunned that he had been out on the balcony for longer than he had intended. Looking out over the crowd, he spotted Mike easily enough, and then Hange, but not… “Where is Levi?”

“I saw him go upstairs at some point,” Shadis uttered. “I’m not sure he’s been back since.”

Erwin clasped a fourth glass for the journey, but Shadis’s voice kept him close. “He isn’t a child, Erwin,” Shadis reiterated quietly.

Erwin forced his huff of annoyance to exhale as a sigh. “I am aware, Commander.”

“I don’t think you are,” he countered, surprising Erwin. “His body may be changing but his mind has always been the same. Just because he’s quiet doesn’t mean he is immature.”

Erwin felt a flush of embarrassment on his cheeks. “I never thought of him as immature.”

Shadis shrugged, disregarding that and continuing, “It is hard not to. You knew him when he was small, and this made you want to protect him, even from yourself.”

Erwin’s blue eyes turned to ice and Shadis gazed into them tranquilly. “The best kept secret is that we all have a monster inside of us. Yours is why I trust you to take my place, and if you think for a moment that Levi isn’t aware of what’s inside of you, you’re wrong.”

Erwin was not sure if he was being chided, insulted, or complimented, so he settled on responding, “I never thought of you as a monstrous commander, sir.”

Shadis guffawed, then, covering his mouth to catch droplets of whiskey. “That is because I keep the log books of casualties right in front of me. The deaths that occurred during my tenure take up an entire shelf of my office. Sometimes I think of them as my list of sins, my list of murders.”

“Titans killed them, Keith,” Erwin interrupted, neglecting etiquette and using the man’s first name.

A sad smile graced the commander’s lips. “Yes they did…but you will doubt that every time you send a comrade toward one of them. But that is no excuse to keep people distant from you… Do you understand?”

The commander stared hard into Erwin’s eyes, and the latter felt nostalgia, like he was a recruit, fresh in the Corps again. “I…I think I do,” he admitted, and then added, “but I’m not sure wh—”

“Oh, Mike’s caught a scent. He’s on the move,” Shadis observed, amused. “Enjoy your evening, Captain.”

 

Mike found Hange, who scowled at his request. “I’m not talking to that fur ball. He needs to apologize to me first.”

“For what?” Mike wondered, watching her cram her mouth with cheese balls.

“He knows what!” she barked after painfully swallowing the mouthful.

Mike sighed, unconsciously breathing in the scent of a dapper young man passing by. “He needs to talk to someone, Hange, and he won’t speak to Erwin about this because the captain is oblivious.”

Hange glared at him before sighing in defeat. She made a point to pile on more cheese balls before she followed Mike upstairs. Levi was sitting on a cushioned bay windowsill, knees tucked under his chin. He shifted uncomfortably since his tail was hidden inside one of his trouser legs. When he heard Mike and Hange approach, he reflected moonlight back at them with his iridescent pupils. The room was a parlor of some kind, dark and closed off from the rest of the party, but that was why Levi sought it out.

“Bored, already?” Mike proffered his customary quip, but he noticed how the window Levi had chosen was positioned over the river and not any balconies.

Hange leaned her shoulder against the alcove’s frame, staring Levi down until he looked up. “I’ll accept your apology at any time.”

His brow furrowed but his ears flattened guiltily. “You pry too much.”

“I like to think I pry just enough,” she stated proudly, and then frowned. “You haven’t grown any. Where’s Erwin?”

“Indisposed,” Mike answered. “Levi, do you want to leave?”

The young face looked up with deep, eager silver eyes, but to the contrary he said as he looked out the window, “He needs me here.”

Mike and Hange exchanged loaded glances. Hange sat on the window cushion, considering what to say. “If you want, I…I might be able…it won’t be right, or healthy by any means, but…if you wanted me to, I could—”

“Levi?”

Three pairs of eyes turned toward the door, where Erwin nearly filled the frame. “Are you ready to go?”

Slowly unfolding his legs, Levi stood from the ledge and walked between Hange and Mike to where Erwin stood. “We’ll be right behind you. Go on ahead,” Mike informed, to which Erwin nodded and guided Levi out with a hand on the small of his back.

When they were gone, Hange looked up at Mike and said, “Funny how masks work. They trick people into being themselves. They think they can hide behind the mask like it’s a shield. Once their true self comes out, so do their secrets.”

 

Erwin’s toe caught on the step into the carriage, causing him to stumble inside. Four glasses of champagne dropping into his stomach all at once was now hitting him with full force. Levi’s hands guided him into the vehicle in such a way that Erwin wondered if he was actually lifting him inside, but when his ass hit the seat, all that he felt like contemplating was how soft the inn’s bed would be.

He unconsciously draped a heavy arm around Levi’s shoulders, curling his hand around to simultaneously comb through Levi’s hair while swiping the velvet cap off. Levi’s ear twitched and fluttered when Erwin nuzzled behind it, his firm lips craving the softness of his fur.

“You are beautiful. Do you know that, Levi? Truly stunning…”

A bump in the road made Erwin’s head swim anew, but as his internal waters calmed, he revisited a former thread of conversation: “Will you tell me what bothers you? What you said on the balcony? What’s making you push me away?”

“You’re drunk, you fucking light weight,” Levi scolded, trying and failing to shrug the larger man off.

“Ooh, language,” Erwin exclaimed breathlessly. He slumped so his body pinned Levi in the corner. “You smell better outside of the Underground.”

“Obviously,” Levi huffed. “Get off me, buffoon. You’re heavy.”

“I don’t miss her, you know,” he murmured suddenly as his lips once again nuzzled the back of Levi’s ear. “I really don’t. I miss our intimacy, but I don’t miss her.”

They were quiet for a long time, the only sounds being the stray passersby outside the carriage, and the rumble and rattle of the vehicle itself over the stones of the road. By the time Erwin’s soft snores were vibrating in Levi’s ears, Levi leaned into the large, lean muscle of his body while holding the nape of Erwin’s neck. Levi buried his nose in his clean, sweet and pine scent there before whispering in his ear, “I said, I want YOU to touch me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Erwin's in for a rough awakening hahaha ;D


	8. Puberty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erwin has more than a hang over to deal with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta da! Chapter 8 :) Emotionally prepare thine selves.

Erwin opened his eyes reluctantly. He identified the familiar print on the ceiling plaster as that of the inn, but he had no recollection of getting back here. Thinking back to the previous evening, he tried to recall what had happened.

Marie. She had kissed him. Kissed him quite a bit. Erwin had been stone cold sober for that and had sought refuge immediately at the champagne counter. Then he had spoken with Shadis… Erwin realized he had not mingled with the guests like he had planned to, meaning to establish valuable connections for later on, but…then he’d gone to find Levi.

Levi…he hadn’t enjoyed the night at all, Erwin was certain. It wasn’t fair to him to make him hide what he is. His gifts of grace, agility, acute hearing, and overall astounding intuition and intelligence made him a unique individual.

And currently, that individual was moving against him in ways Erwin’s hung over state could not comprehend.

“Levi?” he muttered, wincing at the loudness of his own voice. But his eyes popped open at the hot, wet sensation sliding up his neck, tingling the area behind his ear. The firm bite of teeth on his earlobe burst his groggy bubble. “LEVI.”

“Yes?” he murmured against him, and Erwin was once again shocked by the development of Levi’s voice. It was lower, smooth, and…playful?

“I have a headache. What are you doing?” he interrogated.

“I have aches of my own,” Levi returned, “What are you going to do about them?”

Erwin leaned away from him and turned to find a much older Levi lying next to him. His chin was narrow but strong, his lips full and those eyes heavy with hormonal lust.

“Oh no…” he murmured despite himself.

“Oh yes,” Levi chuckled, and Erwin stared dumbly at the dimples flanking a genuine smile.

“Oh no!” he lurched out of bed, tripping and falling while taking half the bedclothes with him. Levi pounced, hugging him from behind as Erwin carried him out the door and down the hall. He swept right into Hange’s room, knocking loudly on the headboard above her frazzled head. “HANGE!”

She awoke with a start, a thread of drool connecting her mouth to the pillow. “Huh? Wha…?”

“Hange! He’s kissing me!” Erwin declared, because at that moment, Levi was leaving a trail of kisses down his shoulder. Every now and then Erwin felt a distinct nip of teeth on his skin. “Hange! What’s happening?”

“Puberty, dumbass.” She let her head fall back on the pillow, deeming this an unnecessary occasion to get out of bed. “Take him back to bed.”

“And do WHAT—AH!” Erwin exclaimed when teeth firmly chomped on the corner where his neck met his shoulder.

Hange murmured some unintelligible complaint and finally rose on her knees to inspect the youth wrapped around Erwin’s back. She pried one of Levi’s eyes open to gauge his pupil dilation and then pressed the back of her hand to his neck. “He’s in heat. Lucky you. Get out of my room.”

“Heat? He won’t have a heat stroke, will he?” Erwin asked, sincere worry plaguing him even while Levi licked along the edge of his ear.

“Only if you fail to screw him.”

“That’s not funny, Hange!”

“I’m laughing in my dreams,” she yawned, already half asleep once more.

Erwin marched to the other side of the hall, barging right into Mike’s room. He knew the man was likely stark naked under the covers but he didn’t care. Mike sniffed and his eyes popped wide open. “Woah. Someone’s horny.”

“Levi’s in heat, according to Hange,” Erwin explained tersely. “What should I do about it?”

Mike stared at him vacantly, and then rolling peals of laughter burst from him. “Don’t play the blushing virgin, Smith, it doesn’t suit you. Just take him back to bed. A hand job might do the trick. Goodness knows you could use one. Two cats with one, um, hand.”

Erwin sighed roughly, pulling Levi off his back to set him on his feet, but he only leaned up to smell along the hem of Erwin’s shirt, unbuttoning to allow his nose greater access. Clamping a hand firmly on Levi’s shoulder, Erwin held him at arm’s length and glared at Mike, whose eyes widened.

“You didn’t think I’D…no way! He’s all yours.”

“How long does this sort of thing last?” Erwin asked helplessly. Levi had resumed his place on Erwin’s back, mussing his golden hair.

Unbeknownst to him, Levi’s arm crossed over the man’s collarbone, his fingers curved like claws in a dominating, protective gesture while he shot fiery, hooded eyes at Mike. The bedridden man laughed anxiously and shook his head at Erwin. “Probably the quicker you give in, the shorter it will be…or maybe longer if you’re thorough about it.”

“MIKE!”

“Good morning, darling,” he dismissed, rolling over in the bed.

Resigned, Erwin returned to his room with Levi in tow. He flopped on his back, effectively smashing Levi’s body to the mattress but he didn’t seem bothered. In fact, he easily maneuvered out from under Erwin and pinned him instead, straddling his hips. Erwin’s hands swallowed the circumference of Levi’s wrists, but right as he began to move Levi off his body, his eyes locked on Levi’s pelvis, or rather, what was not there.

“Levi, where’s your tail?” he demanded.

“Got rid of it,” he muttered, trying to lean down to Erwin. “It was in the way.”

Blue eyes widened. “What do you mean you…Levi, that was critical to your balance!”

“I balance fine,” he declared, instead settling on nuzzling the insides of Erwin’s wrists.

“Then the pain—”

“I’ve already healed,” Levi curtailed. “Stop changing the subject and touch me.”

Erwin found his grip being used against him as Levi positioned their hands above Erwin’s head. His slim body pressed over Erwin’s for a moment before he flipped them over and established space between them again.

“You didn’t eat anything last night,” he remembered. “Will you stay here while I go get us something to eat?”

Levi’s eyes widened at the mention of food and one of his ears moved, but he replied, “I’m not hungry for food.”

Erwin gave him a look. “Yes you are. You’ve barely eaten in the past twenty-four hours, and nothing is happening until you’ve eaten properly. Stay here. Please?”

Levi threw himself against the pillows, his pant legs needlessly rolled up to reveal skinny shins and ankles above strong feet. His shirt was rolled up to his elbows, slightly unbuttoned to reveal lightly flushed skin on his chest. “Be quick about it.”

Erwin flew down the stairs and actually paced the sidewalk outside for several minutes, waiting for the fresh air to clear his head. It didn’t even bother him that he was still barefoot as he investigated the eateries near the inn. He had absolutely no idea what to do about Levi. He couldn’t lock him in the room until he was done with…whatever he was experiencing, because that was cruel and unfair. He wasn’t sure if taking him on a tour through Sina was the best idea either, considering how frisky and powerful his advances were. Their carriage back to Survey Corps head quarters wasn’t until this evening, so he had roughly ten hours to figure out how to handle a flash case of hormones.

He returned to the inn with several sandwiches loaded with sliced meats and cheeses, as well as a bowl of fresh fruit, the latter of which went flying when Levi crashed into him upon entering the room. Oddly enough, it wasn’t for Erwin, but for the bag of food on his arm. He tore it wide open, catching the individually wrapped parcels and bounding with them to the bed. He was halfway through one of them by the time Erwin dared to reach for one. “I intended to share these.”

Levi’s cheeks puffed out with food, reminding Erwin of when he was much smaller. He gave Erwin a dry, piercing look but allowed him to take one of the parcels, unwrapping softly molten cheese and sliced meat richly smelling of garlic and herbs. His roiling stomach thanked him immediately, the breads and oils absorbing the residual alcohol eagerly.

His mouth was clamped around a corner of meat and bread, biting off the morsel when Levi pecked a surprisingly grease-less kiss on his cheek. He went back to eating so quickly that Erwin was glad his body was demanding food just as greedily as sex. He immediately began to develop a plan to distract Levi from those baser urges for the day, in the form of a tour of the restaurants throughout Sina.

“I’m going to go wake Hange and Mike. We have a full day,” he announced, crinkling the sandwich paper in his fist and tossing it into the rubbish can.

“Doing what?” Levi asked, already on the last sandwich of the bunch.

“They’ll be ravenous when they wake up, and a tour of the restaurants will be good for all of us.”

Levi scowled. “Rich people and their tasteless food.”

“There will be tea.”

His ears perked up and then swiveled back, denying his interest. “Fine.”

Hange was easy enough to get out of bed once breakfast was announced. Mike took longer, simply because he taunted Erwin about how “fast that was.”

The first stop was a bakery, where Hange loaded up on cinnamon bread stuffed with sweet filling. Mike waited for the next stop, a street vendor selling steaming sausage links of every kind: sweet, savory, spicy, and even questionably exotic meats. Levi glared at Mike draping a chain of links around his neck, but once he tasted one, he munched as they walked contently.

Erwin’s personal favorite was a tea and coffee stop that specialized in home brews and soufflés. He split a chocolate soufflé—undoubtedly the most expensive of their purchases that day—with the others, all while Levi kept a firm hold over the top of his porcelain teacup, only sipping it through the crevasses of his fingers.

For the most part, Levi was on his best behavior, only sneaking casual kisses on Erwin’s cheek or a nip on his neck. He mistakenly held out the strawberry garnish of the soufflé to him, which Levi took from his fingers with his mouth. His lips closed around Erwin’s fingertips, flicking his grey eyes up to meet his blue ones before retracting like nothing had happened. Levi chewed the berry, nodding his approval and swiping his tongue over full and ruddy lips when finished.

They agreed to have a full dinner before it came time for the carriage to pick them up, and they returned to the inn to wash and dress. Erwin pointedly gave Levi the bathroom while dashing to Mike’s room to use his. He returned and redressed, waiting for Levi to emerge from the bathroom as he sat on the bed polishing his boots.

He didn’t notice Levi moving silently across the room until he lifted a knee onto the bed beside Erwin’s hip. “Ready?” Erwin asked, but when he looked up, Levi was an inch from his face, and then his lips were pressed over Erwin’s.

The blonde sat frozen, neither kissing in return nor moving away. He felt Levi’s hands slide up his neck to cradle the back of his head and his jaw, tilting his head to kiss him more thoroughly. What kept Erwin where he sat was how gently Levi kissed him; he slowly molded his lips over Erwin’s, not pressuring his mouth open or biting, just kissing him gently, cautiously. It was so unlike his earlier advances that Erwin felt his body responding, his lips puckering and returning suction to kiss him back, and his spine softened to arch slightly to Levi’s touch.

Levi’s fingers tightened ever so slightly on him, and he slowly lowered himself onto Erwin’s lap, knees flanking his hips. When one of their kisses detached, creating the light smooch sound, Levi’s ears stood tall for a brief second before his mouth came down on Erwin’s with more insisting pressure. His pelvis came down to sit flush against Erwin, who felt just how much Levi ached.

His hands still rested on the bed beside him, but when they twitched to rise, to take a hold of Levi, his mind ground to a jarring stop and veered to other places: the feel of his small body filling one of his hands so easily, the way he cuddled next to him so trustingly at night, the murder of Farlan and Isabel right before their eyes, which he had done nothing to hinder…

His mind immediately rationalized this moment as wrong. Levi was vulnerable from his own growth spurts, his losses; his body was betraying him and Erwin was not only foolish, but perverse to return his advances.

Levi tucked his pelvis, grinding against him lightly and gasping at the hot tingles that rushed up his groin, and Erwin’s eyes snapped open. His hands finally rose to slam against Levi’s chest, not only knocking him off Erwin’s lap, but throwing him a good distance to the floor.

“Levi, no!” he snapped, but immediately cringed at his own words. He sounded like he was scolding a pet. “We’re not having sex. I don’t want you in that way!”

His voice sounded louder, harsher than he meant for it to. Levi was staring up at him with wide, stunned eyes, made slightly moist from landing on his tailbone. The cogs of Erwin’s mind turned painfully slowly, trying to find a way to salvage this situation, but before he could, Levi’s mouth closed, a muscle in his jaw ticking as he found his way to his feet.

“Fine,” he said so quietly Erwin might have imagined it, and he strode out the door.

Erwin’s face fell into his hands, shame and abasement flooding his system. This was for the best. He had to convince Levi of that, even if he didn't accept it or disliked him for it, but he would understand eventually. He yanked on his boots and stood, but his door was swinging open before he reached it.

“What the hell did you do?” Hange demanded. “I’ve never seen Levi so upset!”

Erwin flushed and just as quickly blanched. “I refused him. What else was I supposed to do?”

“Spread his legs and fuck him!” she piped far too loudly for the inn’s thin walls. “It’s what he wants!”

“It’s not what he needs!” Erwin countered. “I can’t take advantage of him like that! It’s best if he moves past this as soon as possible before he regrets anything!”

“UGH!” she almost screamed right in his face. “You’re so STUPID!”

Anger sparked in Erwin’s stomach, and he rose to the flames. “Excuse me for refusing to be the pervert who fucks someone who was barely larger than my hand just days ago! I didn’t realize pedophilia was tolerated nowadays!”

“Erwin! It’s not pedophilia with him! He’s older than that! He’s probably as old as you are!”

“That doesn’t make it right, Hange!” he growled. “He needs to have a clear mind when he is with someone, and that someone should be someone he adores and vice versa.”

“Don’t even TRY to play that card with me, Erwin Smith!” Hange bellowed. “I know you love him, and you cannot convince me otherwise, because your feelings for him were what made him grow so fast!”

Erwin was visibly started. “What? What do you mean?”

“Ugh!” she huffed. “He grew in spurts when you held him throughout the night! It wasn’t milk that stopped the pain but your proximity! Come ON, you clod! Mike and I both spent loads of time with him—and who knows how much time he spent with those kids in the Underground—but YOU! He grew because of you! Can you even comprehend what he’s feeling right now? The wave of affectionate energy that you’ve been showering over him has just stopped cold—he is literally shivering in my bed right now! What is he supposed to do?”

Erwin’s face fell as the blood rushed out of it. “He’s shivering? Shivering how?”

Hange rolled her eyes. “As in I had to light a fucking fire in the grate because his temperature dropped to an unhealthy degree!”

Erwin was out the door and arrived within seconds at Hange’s. The scientist kept up easily and entered right behind him. Sure enough, a fresh fire crackled in the grate in the wall adjacent to her bed, upon which was the bundle of bedclothes, trembling slightly.

He rounded the bed and was brought to his knees whether he intended to kneel or not. The top half of Levi’s face poked out of the covers, his eyes clamped shut against the warmth and light of the fireplace. Droplets of moisture speckled his pale face.

“Levi…” Erwin whispered. His eyes would have opened wide, but the pain he was in kept them weakly at half-mast. Tears spilled out as if he’d been trying to keep them firmly in his eye sockets, but now they flowed freely past his temple and slid off the bridge of his nose. His breath was coming and going in jarring, shuddering gasps.

“Levi…” Erwin murmured again, pained by the sight before him and reaching out to comfort him.

But Levi gasped and retreated from his hand, shaking his head violently. “D-D-Don’t t-touch-ch me!”

A sob exploded from his chest, and he clamped his eyes shut again as Erwin defied his request, combing the errant locks of black hair off his face. Hange was right: his skin was cool to the touch, unnaturally so.

“Levi, I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do this to you.”

Another sob wracked Levi’s frame, and Erwin prayed he was only imagining the palpable decline in his temperature. “Tell me what to do. How can I fix this?”

Levi shook his head. “If-f y-you did-dn’t w-w-want me, y-y-y-you sh-shou-shouldn’t h-have tak-k-ken me!”

The backs of Erwin’s eyes felt bruised, but no matter how hard his eyes burned, tears would not fall. This was his fault, and he had to fix this, not cry about it. He reached his other hand up but Levi trembled and dived underneath the covers. Erwin gave a pleading look toward Hange, but she held her elbows and shrugged, genuinely at a loss.

“Go to dinner with Mike,” he decided. “I’ll be here.”

“Are you sure about that?” she inquired carefully.

“Change the carriage departure for tomorrow,” he added, rising enough to kneel on the bed. He hated how the very sheets felt cold from where Levi had lain. “I’m staying with him tonight.”

“Okay…” she murmured quietly, giving him a final look before she departed.

Erwin curled himself loosely around the mound that was Levi so as to not be oppressive, but still comforting. He could hear muffled cries and sobs but all he could do was rub the covers with his hand, hoping that Levi could feel it through the layers of down and fabric.

“I’m sorry, Levi,” he rumbled over and over. “I’m sorry…”

His head settled on the pillow, and with the fire at his back, Erwin felt himself unwillingly being lulled to sleep. He forced himself to keep awake, continuing his cooing and petting of Levi until he felt his body slowly relax beneath the covers. Erwin ventured to stretch alongside Levi’s body more closely to extend his body heat.

He didn’t realize he’d actually fallen asleep until his eyes snapped open at some point in the night to find himself in an empty bed. He could hear Hange and Mike coming back from dinner in the corridor, and he startled them by swinging the door open right as they were passing by.

“How is he?” Mike asked, peeking over Erwin’s shoulder and frowning. “Where is he?”

Hange was already moving, and they could see her throw open Erwin’s room before yelling, “He’s not here!”

“He wouldn’t be in mine…” Mike guessed, but Erwin was already opening his bedroom door to find…nothing.

“Did you fall asleep? What the hell did you fall asleep for?” Mike interrogated.

But panic and anger were warring and tearing at Erwin’s insides as he sprinted past him and down the stairs. “Shut up and help me! LEVI’S GONE!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next update likely won't happen for another two or three days but it's coming! Promise ;)


	9. Old Habits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapters 9 & 10 occur simultaneously, starting with Levi's POV after he leaves cold sheets behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Here there be monsters. It's also the longest chapter thus far...I'm so sorry haha

Levi heard Erwin’s soft snores and the slow LUB-DUB…LUB-DUB...of his heart and knew he was fast asleep. Levi’s body was still freezing despite the covers, the fire, and Erwin’s body heat, and he was still trembling as he carefully climbed out of the cocoon and off the bed.

Expertly turning the knob to silently slip out of the room, Levi tread to Erwin’s room, opening the trunk to claim the spare shirt and trousers he’d brought. Someone from the inn had come by to light a fire in the grate here as well, so Levi threw the garments he’d borrowed from Hange into it. Technically they fit him well, but where he was going, he would need versatile, maneuverable raiment.

Erwin’s shirt was puffy and big around Levi’s slim frame—wider now that he was finally fully grown, but still half the size of the strong blonde. He kept Hange’s belt so he could cinch Erwin’s waistline tight around his navel; even worn so high, he needed to roll the pant legs up.

One of the few genuinely clean things Hange did was keep her boots outside her door, to stymy the smell as well as to air them out. On his way past the door, he grabbed her spare pair and yanked them on while he walked. Making sure the pant legs puffed out over the edge of the boot to allow the material to stretch with his body, Levi exited the inn.

His timing couldn’t have been better: one ear was pointed backwards, listening to Erwin’s calm breathing as he still slept, but the other swiveled in the direction of Mike’s baritone and Hange’s lighter melody.

Time to go, he commanded inwardly, pulling his cap over his ears, and rounding the corner of the block right as Mike and Hange turned onto the street. Levi’s bright eyes found what he wanted instantly: the manhole cover in the center of the street. This late in the night, the avenue was empty except for the stray pedestrian or parked carriage.

Levi’s eyes alighted on one of the parked vehicles as he strode determinedly toward the manhole cover. The driver was uttering watery snores as Levi’s hand gently grazed over the horse’s neck, sliding across the body and instantly calming the animal better than its master ever could. In his hand he held the dinner knife he’d stolen from the Doks’ buffet table. Curious, how the wealthy made such a point to soften their meat but kept their knives wondrously sharp.

He’d already cleaned it after removing his tail; it had been a brief second of agony, but the emotional loss was greater than the physical pain. He had removed a piece of himself, a critical appendage that made him what he was and lent so helpfully to his abilities, but Levi had quickly been glad to be rid of it. The tail often caused him more trouble by alerting people that he was different. He would need to escape less often if he never got in trouble in the first place because of it.

The knife sliced through the purse strings of the sleeping man’s coin bag with a soft hiss, falling nicely in Levi’s waiting palm. Not that he had a desperate need for money, but where he was going, it was a useful fallback to have.

He had seen and heard two or even three men struggle to lift the sewer covers, but Levi tucked two fingers in the hole and braced his legs to lift it with relative ease. Rustling and sloshing water wafted up to his ears, as well as the mossy and musky stench of decay. He gently lowered the cover over his head, disappearing beneath the street.

Everything was different now that he was bigger. Ceilings were lower, tunnels were cramped, and his calluses had softened in the short time he’d spent being pampered. Levi scraped his hand across the rough stone, forcing his palm and fingers to reorient to the Underground.

He crouched through the tunnel until gritty mud took hold of his boots. Levi gracefully slid the rest of the way and landed on the roof of the tallest structure, peering across the expanse of the place he hated more than anything. Yet it was the one place he truly knew, the one place he felt comfortable after living so long.

That makes this home, doesn’t it? he pondered grimly.

His eyes glinted to the west. He recognized the decrepit building that had once been a multistoried apartment house. Empty window boxes adorned broken windows; why window boxes existed down here when there wasn’t a sun to grow anything was beyond Levi’s comprehension. What mattered to him was what he knew rested inside that building, but he couldn’t reach it yet.

Levi settled in the vacant attic of the building he was on, curling up with tattered cloths that could be anything from blankets, curtains, or carpets. He had to wait for his cold spell to finish. Until then, his body was near to useless to him.

 

He leaped and bounded across the rooftops, immediately aware that he was heavier. Despite losing even more weight over the course of the weeks it took him to heal, all the while only venturing out to steal food, Levi was still bigger than he once was, and therefore heavier.

Innately, he adjusted the way his feet fell on the cracked terra cotta and slate tiles, rolling the balls of his feet so he landed lightly and pushed off strong. His lungs filled with muggy air but they expanded to accommodate and the demanded oxygen, poor quality though it was. The back of Levi’s throat wanted to gag, begging for the freshness of what was above his head, above the ground.

Levi swallowed and kept going, diving into the shadows he so easily hid in because of his dark hair and velvet cap. He paused in an alley two stories above the street in order to fold the garment inside out. Levi didn’t need unnecessary greedy hands reaching for him.

Continuing another block and then dropping to the street below, Levi removed his cap to allow his ears to scan the façade. Four people were upstairs playing cards. Half a dozen were snoring on the ground floor. Footfalls sounded on the third story, but they belonged to one person. Leaning against the brickwork, Levi crouched to listen for movement in the basement. Hearing none, he carefully lifted the only intact window, grimacing as it scraped along the frame. He only had to lift it a few more inches to be able to fit his thin body inside, and only one person had roused at the sound. The man’s greasy yet vibrantly red hair was unmistakable.

As he rolled over and cracked an eye open to see what the sound was, Levi maneuvered behind where he lay on the floor surrounded by pillows and comrades. Stepping over one of them easily, Levi crouched right next to the man and whispered. “You killed Farlan.”

Levi sliced through his vocal chords before he could scream, and plunged the dagger into his eye, firmly shutting off his brain.

The person next to him grunted, and Levi froze, waiting for them to wake up, to open their eyes.

They grunted something about “…want ‘em frosted. Pucker ‘em for me…” but a loud snore cut off the words.

Levi moved on. The door of the room was ajar and he easily slipped past it, but the door to the basement creaked harshly and he hastily tried to maneuver around it without opening it further. But his balance failed him. His hip thudded against the door and the only way Levi could regain composure was to use the momentum to his advantage and spin all the way around. He caught the door before it crashed against the wall, holding onto it so his body didn’t tumble down the stairs.

But they were awake.

“What was—Bailey! Wake the fuck up!”

“Mhuh?”

“Gunther! You lazy shit!” Levi heard what sounded like a pillow being thrown across the room. “Go see what it is!”

“G-Guys!” The voice that likely belonged to Gunther stuttered. Levi already knew why before he spoke next. “He’s dead! Oh fuck, there’s blood everywhere!”

The room was instantly tense but Levi could hear precise, quiet footfalls as they went on full alert. “Gunther,” the leader growled softly, authoritatively. “Go check the basement. Bailey, alert the boss. The rest of you fan out.”

Levi had by this time regained his footing and climbed atop a rickety bookshelf that stood beside the stairs leading into the basement but was hidden behind a corner of the wall. He audibly recognized Gunther’s sharp intake of breath when he saw the basement door open, but his ear twitched when he came down the stairs without informing his comrades. Levi wasn’t sure if that made him a fool or brave.

Gunther revealed himself to be a man with surprisingly rich skin for someone who had likely never seen the sun, but he had an awful haircut, like a horse had licked his hair and he’d just kept it that way. Levi had to shut his eyes or else his silver irises would reflect and draw attention, but his ears were his sight. The socks of Gunther’s shoeless feet scraped against the grit of the cellar floor, his clothes rustling as he crouched and turned, searching.

When he ducked behind the large crates piled on the far side of the room, Levi risked opening his eyes and took the chance to jump from the bookshelf. Gunther gasped, standing erect and opening his eyes wide as if to absorb every shred of light there was. The bookshelf stopped wobbling but his heart still pounded in his lungs.

From his new hiding spot, Levi could see him desperately looking toward the stairs, obviously wanting to go back up them to find his companions and leader. He shakily exhaled and then inhaled, shaking his head and turning around to keep searching. He fit himself between the crates and the wall, squinting his eyes to see if anyone was hiding there.

Levi stood behind him, analyzing the man. He was big. Not bigger than Erwin or Mike, but still bigger than Levi. He reckoned he was always going to be smaller than others, but this suited him just fine. Smaller had its advantages; it was what he knew best.

Gunther was obviously afraid, and certainly foolish. In many regards, this made him a coward, and cowards were dangerous, but Levi knew fear too well to undervalue the man’s bravery. He decided that though Gunther was an idiot for not having backup or reporting to his superior like he should, he was not a coward.

Leaving Gunther in the basement, Levi bounded silently up the stairs. I’ll deal with him later, he reasoned as he found the ground floor empty. Levi considered his options: kill Gunther and take what he came for, simply leave and leave them wondering, or…

Levi gripped his blade so the point reached for the floor, and carefully peeked up the stairs to the second story. All it took to provoke the guards was a glint from his eyes.

“Did you see that!” one of them gasped.

“See what?”

“I don’t know…something shiny. I think he’s got a knife!”

“What makes you think it’s a he?” returned the low, but certainly female voice. Not that it mattered. Levi waited with his back pressed to the wall.The Underground didn’t hold the same gender specifics as the cities above did. Women were just as capable of cruelty, and with an extra hole between their legs, they used every advantage they had to succeed.

Levi crouched right as a person descended the steps. Their eyes scanned the room but moved right over him. Amazing how some people simply didn’t look down. The woman moved further into the room, out of sight from the stairs and her body tensed to attack. Levi took her down just as quickly and quietly as he had the first victim. He even laid her gently next to the man’s corpse.

“Liz?” the man called from the stairs. Like Gunther, he foolishly did not go to his superiors or for backup when no reply came. Unlike Gunther, his breathing grew more tumultuous and Levi could smell his sweat soaking into his hair, his shirt collar.

The man emerged, and before the scream could tear through his windpipe, Levi twisted his head to cause empty eyes to look up the stairwell, seeing nothing.

Keeping an ear trained downwards to mark Gunther’s progress, Levi crept up the stairs, pausing when a halo of candlelight became visible. 

Candles were a tough commodity to come by; these thugs had been busy making profit. Levi listened and knew that there were four in the room and the last four were on the third story. He checked his shadow to make sure it was behind him and not on the wall or the floor, foretelling his presence.

He needed them to come to him, to confine themselves on the staircase and the wide-open room below where Levi had the advantage. Before he could conjure a way to make it happen, he heard, “Oi, where are those two?”

Levi made his boot scrape over the floorboard. When the inquiring person came close enough, he snatched them and threw them down the stairs. The other three individuals answered to the thuds and painful huffs of the man tumbling downwards, and Levi was ready for them.

“Stop!”

Levi paused. He had the four people at his mercy, one at his feet and the other three corralled on the stairs. But at the top of them stood a skinny blond woman with three others at her back. The leader.

Levi moved to get out of her line of sight, but she commanded, “I see you. Come into the light.”

He huffed a laugh. “If you can’t play in the shadows you shouldn’t live underground.” His foot pressed against his captive’s windpipe, not suffocating him, but just enough to ensure he wasn’t a threat.

The woman’s head tipped slightly, scrutinizing him. “You have night eyes. You’re one of those freaks.”

“Don’t be insulting,” Levi scowled. “ ‘Freak’ is an understatement to my abilities.”

Her shoulders moved with a brief laugh. “And your arrogance. You killed three of my people, it seems.”

“Four,” Levi goaded, pressing his boot down. His captive lurched and fainted from lack of air. The men on the stairs hissed and groaned their hatred, ignorant to Levi’s ploy.

He could hear Gunther finishing in the basement. This had to be quick. “Come and get me if you’re going to kill me.”

“He’s worth more than all of you,” the female ordered. “Take him alive. I don’t care if some things break, just make sure his heart’s still beating.”

That was all Levi needed.

His knife spiraled through the air, landing in one man’s jugular while the others filed into the room. Levi jumped backwards, landing on the spine of the couch to establish distance before leaping back into the fan of enemies. Some of them had blades, but those were just like extensions of their arms, and it reminded Levi of being small, having to dodge and evade long, grabbing hands.

His instincts twirled his body horizontally in midair, his boot connecting with someone’s head while his hands twisted another’s. Catching another’s assailant’s hand, he spun the man around and held onto him like a shield for the dagger coming from one of the other’s. Instead of Levi, the blade plunged into his human shield.

That was three down. Three to go.

It was almost laughable how quickly the next two perished. Levi found himself sandwiched between them as they collided and fell in a heap. With the two of them combined it was like wrestling Mike again, and Levi usually won those bouts. His hands found the throat of one and squeezed; he felt the slight pop of his trachea breaking and left him to choke.

As if to mimic the action, an arm hooked Levi under the chin. He fell back, strangled and yelping. He had seconds until the thief figured out that he needed more pressure to crush his windpipe—but instead the man bit one of Levi’s ears, hard.

He unleashed a bloodcurdling scream that was so feral and inhuman that the man’s grip loosened from shock, and in one motion Levi rolled off, gripped his skull, and bashed it on the floorboards.

A puddle of blood was forming when he stood, and his reflexes moved before he registered his own knife flying towards his throat. He reared back, feeling the sharp edge glide across his skin, the vein, before it he managed to catch it. His fingers stung from the clumsy catch, but he looked at the woman and growled huskily, hate and anger pouring out of him. “You killed Isabel.”

His speed was better than hers, and the knife flew again, but this time it landed successfully in her shocked mouth. She landed heavily, her long, dirty blond hair fanning around her head while the blade’s point stuck out past her nape.

Levi’s tread was soft as he came forward to pluck it from her lips, and then he turned and found Gunther staring at him. Of all the things to say at that moment, he pointed and uttered, “You’re bleeding.”

Levi clamped a hand on the slice to his vein, feeling the faint pulse of blood slipping through his fingers. He had to get this cleanly bandaged, and soon. As if reading his thoughts, Gunther muttered, “There isn’t any doctor hygienic enough to fix that.”

Levi scrutinized the young man. Gunther’s chin was down, not threatening, but his eyes kept peaking up, stealing glances at Levi’s ears and glowing eyes. “Are they all dead?”

“Depends,” he answered. “Do I have to kill you?”

“Preferably not,” Gunther answered honestly. “Not like I have anyone to go to after this, or any attachment to these people to compel me to harm you anyways.”

Levi’s eyes roamed over the warm, healthy skin. “You’re from above.”

Gunther shrugged, finding courage enough to meet Levi’s gaze. “I was broke. There’s money underground if you’re willing to put up with the smell, and the shitty food that money buys.”

Levi decided Gunther was tolerable. “Then you’re going back above while I get this fucking wound patched up. He’s still breathing,” he gestured lethargically at the man he’d suffocated to unconsciousness.

Gunther looked at the unconscious man, a wide bruise already apparent on his throat. “That’s Bailey.”

“And?”

Gunther shook his head. “I never liked Bailey.” So they left.

 

“You’re obviously capable enough,” Gunther reasoned. It annoyed Levi how good he was at that. “Why don’t we just be street rats above ground?”

Levi brushed his freshly cleaned hair under his cap as they neared the manhole. “Because you can’t destroy a weed without destroying its roots.”

Gunther frowned. “What does that mean?”

“I’m not a fucking gardener,” Levi rebuked. It was something Isabel had told him once when they had ventured above the Underground. She was oddly fond of plants and took him with her whenever she desired to be near them. “You said it yourself: there’s money down there for people willing enough to go get it. The military’s struggling for funds, and the Police have already chosen to tap into the Underground’s reserves.”

Gunther’s eyes lit up. “We control the Underground’s economy, we control the Military Police. That’s ballsy. Not to mention impossible. Do you know how many drug lords, thief guilds, and trafficking agencies there are down there?”

Levi lifted the cover, much to Gunther’s fascination. Despite how much time he'd already spent with Levi, some things still shocked him, such as Levi’s strength.

“I lived in the Underground longer than you. I know them all intimately. I know the vein that needs to be cut.”

It was a metaphor, but Levi still touched the snug bandage around his neck, slightly choking him if he breathed too deeply. The laceration was already scabbed over and healing, but he wasn’t risking leaving it open to infection.

“Vein? What do you mean, ‘vein?’” Gunther asked as they descended to the pits below. Levi had chosen this entry point specifically, so they emerged above the winding Underground river that fed into a cesspool grotto even deeper beneath the earth. The Underground was beneath every city, miles and miles beneath all three walls, and one river conveniently snaked its way in a loose circle around the perimeter of the Underground. It was, for all intents and purposes, literally the blood flow of the Underground’s economy and shipment industry.

Gunther’s eyes followed Levi’s to the frothy rapids below, his pupils dilating for light and with wonder. “Oh…OH. Well fuck…we need a sailor.”

“Do you know one?” Levi asked flatly, glad he had finally caught on.

“Several,” Gunther shrugged, “but it’s harder to find one who isn’t already bought and paid for my someone.”

“Then find one,” Levi ordered softly.

Gunther boldly rolled his eyes at him but iterated, “There’s a smuggler I haven’t met but just about everyone’s got a bone to pick with him, mainly because he does what he wants and tells everyone else to eat shit.”

“Not difficult down here,” Levi muttered, and it took about five minutes for Gunther to realize he’d made a joke. “I want to meet this smuggler. How do we find him?”

Gunther shook his head. “I don’t know what ports he frequents, or under which walls he lingers.”

Levi hummed his acknowledgement and leapt over an alleyway to uncover some roofing tiles where their stash of 3DMG was located. It would have been easy enough to leave it in the basement of its original thieves, but gangs tended to be a part of a network, and leaving it behind would only serve to leave it for someone else.

After seeing Isabel, Farlan, and Mike use the gear, Levi knew intimately how it operated; but that didn’t stop him from despising the grip of the harness on his body. He already had bruises and raw skin where it rubbed and squeezed him the wrong way.

“Then I guess we’ll have to search all of it, won’t we?” he declared as Gunther pulled on his own set of equipment.

 

Eld smoked an expensive cigar that was without a doubt illegal between two of the walls. His petite schooner rocked pleasantly on the water as he smoked and hummed to himself. The song in his throat morphed into a grunt when he heard boots on the wood of his ship. He opened his eyes to see the uniforms bearing the unicorn sigil.

He sighed, “Really, you’re not even being discrete about it.”

One of the Policeman chuckled. “We control the Underground and any wandering eyes. Soon we’ll control you too, Jinn.”

A small smirk curved Eld’s lips. “Jinn is my family name. If you’re going to insult me, do it individually. The name’s Eld, and it sounds like you know what I’m about to say for the…ninth time? I lose track of how often you beg for my help.”

Levi’s brow rose with mild surprise. Gunther shrugged, acknowledging the man’s blunt arrogance. Eld Jinn had been easy enough to find: there was more smuggling and money to be had beneath Sina, and the man’s ship had a dusky red sail, after all. He all but flaunted himself, and after sighting the Military Police members approaching the ship, they knew they’d found the right man.

The other Policeman taunted, “And we’ll have to kill your crew for the ninth time, it seems. That is, unless you understand who you’re dealing with. Speaking of, where are they?”

“You mean you don’t know?” Eld goaded right back. “I thought you controlled everyone.”

“Tfft,” one of them scowled. Eld slowly lowered his cigar as he watched the man shrug the rifle off his shoulder. “Maybe you’re not worth the trouble and we’ll kill you instead of the crew.”

“Not like we need the captain to take the ship,” his companion agreed.

Levi readied his stance to jump down, but he held out a hand to stop Gunther. “Wait. Watch,” he commanded.

Gunther gave him a worried look. “He can’t survive against bullets.”

“He not worth convincing if he can’t defeat two men,” Levi explained tersely. “Wait and watch.”

Eld casually flicked the end of his cigar, casting ash across his deck. “You’re taking a long time to aim.”

“Deciding where to shoot,” the man jibed. “This shouldn’t bee too quick. I was thinking the kneecap, or a foot.”

Eld chuckled, taking another puff and shifting in his seat before standing. “As if you have that kind of aim. Shall I stand? Make it easier for you.”

Levi noted that when he stood, his long legs brought him quite close to the Police members, who were oblivious.

“Knee caps,” the other decided. “Bring him to his knees.”

Eld sighed, taking a final puff from his cigar. The next action happened quickly: he flicked the cigar up, blowing ash and smoke in the men’s eyes while ducking out of the rifle’s line of fire. The weapon went off, scattering splinters as he was crashing into both men, bringing them to the deck. Wrenching the rifle from the man’s hands, he brought the butt of it down, thoroughly knocking his captive unconscious before doing the same to the other. In one fluid motion, he stood and poised the rifle in his shoulder, pointed at Levi and Gunther, who’d landed almost silently to watch the proceedings.

Eld raised an eyebrow. “What’s with the hat?”

Levi obligingly pulled it off, and Eld’s eyes widened. He tipped his head as if weighing the circumstances. “Alright,” he chimed, and lowered the weapon though his eyes never left them. He pointed at the garment in Levi’s hand, “And I know that’s velvet whether it’s inside-out or not. If you’re trying to bribe me—”

“I want to strangle the Military Police’s money flow,” Levi curtailed. “You’re going to help us do it.”

Eld’s face was frozen where he’d been interrupted. Slowly, his pointed hand lowered and his face relaxed, processing what had just been said. “You have my attention.”

“Where is your crew?” Gunther asked, curious.

“Don’t have one,” Eld resumed smoking. “Watching them die eight times was enough.”

Gunther frowned. “So…you’re retired?”

Eld smiled intelligently. “Does such a thing exist down here?”

“You know someone higher up,” Levi deduced. “If the Police wanted you gone, they’d send more than two men to do it.”

The smuggler’s brows lifted with intrigue. “I might have worn a harness once,” he admitted, eyeing the ones they wore. “The unicorn didn’t suit me. These lower ranked idiots don’t know me but the highest orders bought me drinks once upon a time. They ignore me out of courtesy but it won’t be long before they’re tired of all the money I’m stealing from them.”

“Why do you do it?” Gunther continued.

Eld fixed placid eyes on him but answered with a dark tone, “Maybe I didn’t appreciate my drinks being bought with children’s fuck money.”

Gunther swallowed. “Fair enough.”

“Are you in or out?” Levi catalyzed.

Eld shrugged. “In. Where do we start? Are you planning on blockading the river or plundering a shipment at a time? Pirate Eld…Pirate Jinn…I’m not sure either one has the right ring to it.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Levi said impatiently. “We start now. As a smuggler, you know where the best shipments are going and how to reach them.”

“True.”

“What do you think would cut the most damage?”

Eld thought about that, scratching at the scruff forming on his chin. “Hard to say…the Police like their drugs but the drug lords like their prostitutes. It’s a vicious triangle.”

“Whores first, then,” Levi concluded. “There are brothels or clinics above ground that are safer for them.”

Eld’s eyes widened. “Woah. Traffic shipments could be as large as three dozen whores. Where do you expect me to drop off that many panicked people without the Police noticing?”

“You and Gunther will plunder the cargo. I’ll take care of the rest,” Levi said, leaving no room for argument.

But of course Gunther made one. “We need more people for this. The three of us can’t do it.”

“Not with that attitude, obviously,” Eld rebuked. “Off we go, then?” He glanced at the two unconscious men still lying on his deck. “Let me just clean this up…”

Dumping them on the dock, Eld easily cast off and the draft of air over the water filled the red sail to push them upstream. They reached a dock sooner than Levi imagined, right beside a canal. Peering down the stretch of water, they saw a ship coming forward with a wide, deep belly used for storing cargo, some of which was still being ushered below deck. Levi suppressed a cringe as he watched men and women of relatively young ages shoved below deck.

“I’ll attack from the air,” said briefly, and aimed his grapples before either Gunther or Eld could speak. From above, Levi watched the ship sail inconspicuously past Eld’s and turned into the river. Before the stern was past the canal’s edge, Levi had landed on the ship. Three sailors were unconscious at his feet by the time the crewmen were alerted to his presence. For such a large cargo, there only seemed to be a dozen or so sailors, and once Gunther boarded, Eld was free to tie his hull to the other ship’s.

“It’s easier to keep them below,” he informed, referring to the frightened people waiting to be transported. “Where am I sailing to?”

“Aim for that stalactite,” Levi pointed. “There’s a fairly wide tunnel that leads to the sewers, which lead to a street of brothels. They’ll be safer there than down here.”

Consternation shadowed the smuggler’s eyes. “There’s danger everywhere, just in different forms.”

“Then they will know what the sky looks like as they face it,” Levi countered. “Can you sail this thing or not?”

It was infinitely more difficult getting the prostitutes to climb up to the sewers, many of them raising complaints while most just limply followed orders. Some even screamed when they poked their heads out, but Levi dragged them up and threw them into their new homes. The managers of the brothels were highly perplexed at the influx of employees, many of them outright sending them away due to their smell, but a few intimidations from Levi as well as a few boxes of stolen soap sealed the deal well enough.

They took four more shiploads of prostitutes to the surface over the following weeks, dispersing them across Wall Rose and Maria territories. It wasn’t long before they had the drug lords’ attentions. Eld had to change his sail to a more discrete, grungy grey to avoid detection when they set off to take their first drug shipment.

It was far more equipped than the trafficking ships had been, both in men and weaponry. Levi had to drop down from a rooftop to land stealthily on the rail of the ship before dropping out of sight to hide alongside the hull.

One by one, he took out crewmembers who ventured too close to the edge, slowly lowering their unconscious bodies to the water so they floated downstream to Eld, who picked them up and dumped them on shore. When they were finally onto him, Gunther swooped onboard and helped him take down the rest of the crew. For such a timid man at the start, he was quickly earning his keep.

“We’ll dump the load in the worst part of town,” Levi concluded, “The water can’t get more polluted down there—”

He opened the door to the cargo hold and men spilled out of it. Levi was thrown off his feet and Gunther barely had more warning. Before Levi could so much as get an estimate as to how many there were, someone’s hands grabbed his hat, fingers digging into his ear canals.

“The fuck?” he heard before his hat was torn off. “Holy hell! Mates, look at this!”

Levi screamed at the agony erupting in his pulled ears. Someone experimentally folded one back, and he thought he would faint from the pain.

Something snapped inside him, and his vision blurred. Maybe this is what people called 'black out,' or 'seeing red,' but Levi just moved too quickly to see anything at all. He lashed and bit, ravaged and killed. Bones snapped and tendons popped, and only the sound of Eld firing a rifle called him back to awareness.

Eld and Gunther were staring at him, pale at the sight of him. Levi looked around, seeing the twenty or so men in varying states of destruction, their bodies bent and contorted unnaturally.

Eld’s hand lifted, causing Levi to flinch even though he was several feet away. He gestured toward his ears. “One of them…it’s torn rather badly.”

Levi reached up, and released a strangled yelp when he touched the ear in question. The soft cartilage was torn along his scalp and he was suddenly, painfully aware of blood running past his human ear, down his throat.

The decision was made before he even really thought about it. Finding his knife in his boot and kneeling with his head bowed, Levi cried from pain and anticipation, moving his overgrown locks of hair aside to reach the crescents where his pointed ears connected with his scalp. They trembled as he lifted the blade, felt its edge.

He continued where the tear ended, and fresh, hot blood slid under his hair, soaking his overlarge shirt. The next one was harder, and Levi’s hands trembled violently as he began, but he took a breath and made himself do it steadily. He could either do it properly one time or messily twice.

He gazed down at the soft pieces of him. Now he really did see red as blood dripped over his forehead, off his eyebrows and nose to mix with the tears falling on his hands.

After a while, the pain subsided into a dull, numb prickle. If he moved his hair, it erupted all over again, so he let the black tresses fall over his face, sticking to his skin because of the blood. Without the cartilage to funnel and filter sounds, it all hit him like a tidal wave of information. His hearing was just as keen but it was astoundingly more difficult to distinguish specific sounds from one another and from what direction they came.

One sound, though, was easy enough to decipher as he watched Eld tear the sleeves of his shirt off, using his own dagger to tear through the material to create makeshift bandages.

“You’re more brutish than I gave you credit for,” he said gently as he slowly knelt beside him to tend to his wounds.

Levi growled despite the fresh tears that fell from the pain of contact. “Old habits.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow. You deserve a medal for making it through this one. I owe you so much gratitude.


	10. Another Favor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to Erwin's POV as he receives a letter from Nile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm SO SORRY for the wait! I don't even have a good excuse. I was kidnapped by Youtube. Anyways, here you go! It's also a long one and not exactly exciting but this beautiful art by Noiry actually inspired a section of this chapter (http://pandanoi.tumblr.com/image/90852088483). That is how I imagine Levi and Erwin to look like, so feel free to comment below and we'll gush together :)

Erwin scoured the streets until his lungs burned, his heart pounding in his ear canals. Upon exiting the inn, he had no idea which way to turn, so he ultimately went every which way with Mike and Hange covering every other square block. Erwin startled a silver mare on his way back, rudely awakening her driver before the man complained about a missing purse as Erwin met up with his comrades.

“Where would he GO?” Hange exclaimed, fingers tight in her hair.

“We need to check the rooftops,” Erwin decided. “He’s used to navigating from above.”

“He might not have left through the front door. I'm going inside to smell a direction,” Mike announced, striding into the inn. Erwin and Hange devised the best plan of action for scouting over the rooftops of Sina and came inside to retrieve their 3DMG when Mike intercepted them. “Erwin. Your clothes are gone.”

He frowned. “My clothes? You mean Levi took my clothes?”

Mike shook his head. “It’s hard to say, because his smell is everywhere yours is, but I know how you pack, and your spare things are definitely missing. It would also make sense because I would smell your clothes instead of him, and you’ve just been everywhere in the three mile radius of this place.”

Erwin groaned. “So he’s just made it damn near impossible to find him in a city he knows little to nothing about.”

“Don’t say that,” Hange iterated hopefully. “Levi’s obviously more intelligent than his own good, but he knows how to stay out of sight. Wherever he is, he’s handling himself.”

He was still not reassured but his panic had already simmered down. Levi was gone, and all he could do now was deal with that fact, as well as the emotional implications that came with it: I shouldn’t have pushed him; he probably cracked his tailbone…I was trying to take care of him, I didn’t intend for him to fall in love with me. Did he love me? Surely he knew that once he was grown… Would I have insisted that he leave? Or join the Corps? No, that would be his decision—although he would be damn good at it. The best, most likely… Was Hange right? If I made him grow…did ending my affections break something in him? He’s right. I shouldn’t have taken him. What did I except out of this? Oh hell… what if he NEEDS to be attached to someone? He’s not human but I don’t know what he needs. Why did he and I never discuss this? This is my fault.

Erwin shoved all of it to the darkest corners of his mind and focused on what lay ahead. “We have to inform Shadis. He will still be here for another two weeks but we have to return to headquarters. Hange, send a night messenger to him informing him that I’ll meet him after breakfast. Mike, we’re searching again, this time with 3DMG.”

“Military Police won’t like that,” he commented but was already securing his harnesses.

“Then they can complain to Nile who will complain to Shadis who will laugh in their faces.”

Mike’s lips curved up in an involuntary smile which he tossed at Hange. She wore a similarly stunned but amused expression at their captain’s lack of etiquette as she went out to do as he commanded.

It was actually laughable how easily they managed to not upset or even rouse the notice of a single Policeman as they flew across the city. Erwin and Mike knew each other better than any pair in the Corps, having been together since training. They could communicate without worlds across city blocks, extending their search so the whole city was surveyed by the time dawn approached.

Erwin returned to the inn to wash and eat a quick breakfast of porridge he didn’t even taste. Then, he was knocking on Shadis's office that he was renting which adjoined his lodgings. He knew instantly that something was wrong. Erwin cut right to it, “Levi’s run away.”

Shadis stared at him for a long minute, neither his pen nor his features moving. When they did, though, Erwin didn’t expect a confused frown, nor the words, “That can’t be right.”

Erwin felt his jaw drop comically but also indignantly. Before the cogs of his mind could resume functioning, Shadis continued, “Kemon don’t just run away. They don’t leave their…” The man’s eyes locked on Erwin, deadpan, and said in the disappointed, fatherly monotone, “What did you do?”

His stomach felt bottomless as it cringed. Erwin’s voice came out weaker than he intended, “Their what?”

“What did you do?” Shadis repeated, leaving no room for counter argument.

Erwin swallowed, embarrassed and ashamed. He was still standing before Shadis’ desk but he did not feel like sitting. “Levi grew…he began puberty yesterday. He wanted to have intercourse but I couldn’t do that. I was rough with him and…his heat switched to cold… He was freezing under a hillock of blankets with the fire going. Hange believes the…affections I gave him caused his growth spurts, and the denial of them had a reversed, poisoning effect.”

Shadis’s brows rose like he was not amused or surprised. “She isn’t wrong. I’ll admit, I never expected him to grow quite as rapidly as he did, but after so much attention, once you scorned him, he would have extreme withdrawals.”

Erwin finally dropped into the chair opposite the desk. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

Shadis chuckled. “What? To fall in love?”

Erwin unintentionally shot his fiery ice of a glare at his commander, but instead of cowering, Shadis laughed some more. “There is nothing wrong with your platonic feelings turning romantic, but I will leave it up to you to decide which you have. Either way, you certainly care for Levi.”

“Of course I care!” he exclaimed, frustrated. “He was shocked and alone when I took him, and he’s just as shocked alone out there now.”

“Why did you take him?”

The question stymied Erwin for a few seconds. He felt like he was being tested, like Shadis was daring him to tell the truth. Why was it so difficult to do such a thing?

“I…because…” he sighed. “Because I was intrigued. He was different…IS different. I want to believe I was doing the right thing by taking him, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t take him for selfish reasons. He and those kids managed to steal from a highly skilled thief guild, largely because of his abilities. I wanted his skills for myself.”

Shadis watched him tranquilly. “And you are frightened because you realized you wanted more? Or that he figured you out?”

He shook his head. “Levi already assumed that I would want him for the Corps. I told him it would be his choice when the time came, but I wouldn’t know what else to do with him. It would be a waste otherwise.”

“You’re avoiding the question,” Shadis murmured. “Are you that afraid of your heart?”

Erwin forced himself to sit strong and erect even though he felt more inclined to slump in the chair under the commander’s omniscient gaze. “My heart obstructs my decisions.”

“Well it’s nice to know something does,” Shadis scoffed, “because I know soldier casualties won’t stop your decisions. It might just take someone inhuman to remind you that you ARE human, that you’re fallible. Fallible is good sometimes.”

“Not for the good of the Corps,” he refused.

“I’m not talking about the Corps,” Shadis refuted. “I’m talking about you. Erwin, if I told you that kemon mythology referenced Levi as either a guardian or a monster, what would you say?”

Blue eyes narrowed, contemplating. “I’m not sure I follow.”

The commander explained, “Depending on what story you hear, Levi’s kind are said to be horrific, annihilating creatures of destruction…or, they are the crucial guardians that protect the ones responsible for social change. Either way, kemon arrive when they are needed, whether it is to destroy or protect.”

Erwin’s chin dropped somewhat as he considered his commander’s words but his own logic combatted against it. “I don’t believe in myth or illogical belief. It’s what the Wallist radicals use to cause pandemonium and false hope.”

Shadis chuckled. “Because you know that the walls are just walls. You’ve seen the blueprints that built them by the first legions of the Garrison and Survey Corps. But you’ve also seen Levi. You’ve held him in your very hands. You still bear his scratches around your eyes.”

Erwin held the man’s gaze until he had to avert his. “Kemon don’t leave the ones they’re suppose to protect? The ones they love, is that it? Have I ruined things that badly?”

The commander proffered an infuriating shrug. “Hard to say at the moment. Myths are for retrospect and contemplation. What are you going to do right now?”

His sigh rushed out as he said. “I have to do what is expected of me by the masses, not just Levi. Our carriage returns to headquarters tonight and I have the expedition to plan before you approve it and I make the final drafts.”

“Then do what you are best at, Smith,” Shadis confirmed while taking up his pen once more. “And let Levi do the same.”

Erwin’s hand was on the doorknob when he paused, an epiphany hitting him. “Commander,” Shadis looked up patiently, “your wife…she was a kemon.”

Shadis’ eyes softened the same way they had when he’d first looked upon Levi. “Yes, she was.”

Erwin held his breath. “What happened to her?”

The commander’s expression was unreadable as he dismissed, “Next time, Captain.”

 

In the weeks and then months that followed, Erwin felt the expedition looming over his head. Time was fleeting and there was still so much to prepare, and behind it all was a constant worry, goaded on by Hange’s nagging.

“Don’t you worry about him?” she asked when she brought him dinner after he’d failed to arrive at the dining hall. He sighed and leaned back from his draft charts and documents.

“Yes, I worry, but I have more souls to concern myself with and only two more months to prepare for them.”

“Souls?” her brows reached for her hairline. “No need to get that existential. Their souls will be fine once they’re outside of their bodies, and you can only do so much to prepare those bodies.”

“It never feels like enough,” he said quietly, eyeing the beef stew and scalloped potatoes with an equal mixture of hunger and nausea. He chose to call it an evening and lifted the tray to take to his room. Hange followed, shaking her head.

“Don’t do that to yourself. Here.” Erwin was not surprised she followed him all the way into his room but now he turned to see the familiar envelop. “It’s from Nile.”

Setting his tray on the table, Erwin flicked his scolding eyes at her but took the open letter willingly. He went to the bathroom and waited for the sink to produce warm water, staring down at the letter and immediately frowning at the request that followed:

Captain Smith,  
I know you are busy finalizing arrangements for your next excursion outside the walls but there is something I must request of you. Come to Sina by Saturday. Bring Mike…and others. The favor I must have will not be accomplished by just the two of you.  
Hopefully your curiosity will ensure your arrival.  
Best as always,  
Commander Nile Dok

This time, when Erwin peered up at Hange, it was with curiosity. She tucked her lips and shrugged. “So are we going?”

Erwin sighed and intended to give her back the letter so he could wash in privacy, but his eyes caught on the bathtub. His hand swiped the interior, coming away moist. “Hange, have you been using my bath?”

She merely snorted with laughter.

 

Commander Nile Dok looked up from his own mountain of paperwork three days later. He smiled, rising while holding out his hand. “About time. My life is a shit storm and I need someone who knows how to wipe things properly.”

Erwin seriously questioned whether or not to shake the man’s hand after that but was already outstretched. Resigned, he sat while the same pleasantries were given to Mike and Hange, then to a young but capable soldier by the name of Moblit Berner, followed by a petite but fierce woman named Petral Ral. Moblit was not only capable, he was one of the few who was not frightened by Hange; the two of them made quite a team. Petra created a good balance to whomever she was paired with, providing intelligence, skill, or even mad passion when the situation called for it. Though Nile seemed pleased to meet them, he cast a wandering eye around the room and said disappointedly, “You didn’t bring anyone else?”

“Fuck, Dok,” Mike jibed, falling into the chair next to Erwin. “What kind of trouble are you dealing with?”

The commander took a deep breath as he resumed his seat behind the desk and began, “The issue I initially called you for several weeks ago was not exactly resolved. You reported that a thief’s guild was responsible for the 3DMG thefts but the conflict was not resolved. I didn’t raise an issue because it was good intel and approximately a week later, the culprits were found dead in their home base.”

Erwin’s brows furrowed deeply and Mike voiced what he was thinking, “Guild wars?”

Nile replied, “Perhaps, but with the way things have suddenly escalated in the Underground…none of it makes sense.” He turned a weary eye to Erwin, then, and the blonde immediately knew that Nile had more on his plate than he could handle. The situation really was that bad.

“It’s as if the entire Underground has gone to war with itself. Drug lords are blaming traffickers while the traffickers are upset with the Military Police! Let’s just say that I have become keenly aware of how corrupt my fucking branch of the military is, because our funds have all but come to a complete halt. It’s bloody depressing how much our resources depend on the crime down there, but even more so, people are dying.”

Petra spoke next: “So you want us to go down there to stop the fighting? Reconcile the druggies and pimps so they can keep paying the Police to look the other way?”

With lighter notes of confidence and hope, Nile said, “I have already drawn up plans to replace funding with lawful means above ground. What still must happen is the fighting must stop. Let me illustrate this more clearly:

“Barges of dead bodies are found floating around the Underground's river. The bodies remain but the drug cargo is missing, and the way some of the…well, the powders have been dragged across the deck, we think it is actually being dumped overboard.”

“What is that doing to the water table?” Hange piped, suddenly wide-eyed. “That eventually affects us!”

Erwin silently thanked Moblit for placing a calming hand on her shoulder so the commander could continue. “Something that is already affecting us is that the lost cargo of the traffickers is oddly showing up above ground. Brothels are overflowing with employees. I’ve arranged a way for them to get proper medical care that will intern pay back the Military Police, but it’s curious, isn’t it?”

Erwin was both amused and a little disappointed at Nile’s jump at opportunity. Trafficking was wrong at all times, but he was certainly making the best out of the situation. “So someone is purposely sabotaging the illegal economy.”

“It seems that way,” Nile confirmed. “I know this is the worst timing for you, Smith, but I can’t trust my men down there. They’re either dying or paid off or dying because they’re paid off. I need you to figure out who’s doing this.”

Erwin leaned forward, positioning his elbows on his knees and with steepled fingers on his lips. “What leads can you give us?”

Commander Dok laughed anxiously, rather like he was embarrassed. “Well here’s the thing…we only have sightings of three men doing this.”

Erwin’s blue eyes became piercing as the sunlight behind Nile’s head shot through them. Nile looked suddenly uncomfortable under that stare and Erwin shrugged off Hange’s hand painfully tugging on his sleeve. He inquired measuredly, “Just three?”

Nile nodded, unsure what was passing between him, Hange, and even Mike. Moblit and Petra seemed just as oblivious but they were patiently waiting. “It seems extremely unlikely that just three men would be able to cause the destruction that they have, but they have 3DMG, which makes me think they were the ones to kill the thief guild.”

“And I bet one of them is damn good at using it, too,” Erwin muttered, almost inaudible.

Nile appeared surprised at Erwin’s curse but he replied, “They’re all good with it. Too bloody good if you ask me. It concerns me that my men are doing more than taking bribes.”

“Do you have anything else to tell us, Commander?” Erwin curtailed, suddenly eager to get Underground.

Nile shook his head but then said, “Keep away from the river. What men I still have under my control are working on cleaning up the mess. They won’t take kindly to Survey Corps interfering.”

Erwin beamed, which only made Nile more concerned. “Thank you, Nile. Good afternoon.”

They departed without any further discussion. Erwin was immediately flanked by Hange and Mike, the former absolutely buzzing with energy. “It’s HIM! You know it’s HIM!”

Mike was more levelheaded as he warned, “Erwin, if he’s returned to the Underground, he won’t be the same person we first picked up.”

“Um, who are we talking about?” Moblit chimed in.

Hange opened her mouth wide to spew information but Mike and Erwin’s glares gave her pause. “Eh…a wonderful person. Deadly, but wonderful.”

“I’m deadly and wonderful,” Petra scoffed. “We need more information than that.”

“His name is Levi,” Erwin informed tersely, “and he’s more than you’ve ever imagined.”

Moblit and Petra glanced at each other. Having seen titans, that was quite a statement.

 

“We’re not dealing with titans, here,” Erwin scolded mildly, keeping his annoyance in check. Neither Petra nor Moblit had ever been to the Underground before, but even after a week of investigation and scouting, they were not used to the…well, the characteristics of its citizens.

“Tell that to the lady by the canal!” Moblit complained, rubbing his neck. Erwin could just make out a raw, red patch. “She was ready enough to take a bite out of me.”

Erwin respected and even liked Moblit, but for some reason if he wasn’t near Hange, he had a bit of a manic anxiety to him. It was like he only had enough reserves to be calm for Hange but not himself.

“Hange’s on the east side of the canal. Go make sure she’s doing what she’s supposed to and not trying to test the water's pH.”

Visibly relieved, Moblit flew off to follow his orders. Petra turned expectantly to him, awaiting hers. As if guessing what he was going to say, she intervened, “Zacharias will only send me back to you. He complains I smell too much like vanilla and it throws off his game.”

Erwin could not stifle a chuckle and tactfully commiserated, “There is nothing vanilla about you, Ral. Follow me to the north. Keep at least three blocks between us so we’ll cover more ground.”

Petra smirked as she looked to the north, along the river bend. “I seem to recall Commander Dok telling us to keep away from the river.”

“Is Dok your commander?” he inquired pointedly. Like Mike, he preferred to fly alone. It was more calming that way; he was more focused and didn’t have to worry about his teammate.

“Absolutely not,” he heard her reply. “You are. Which is why I’ll fly north.”

Erwin paused to watch her swoop over the canal and dive down a side street that followed the river’s path. He had not been expecting that admission at all. It was no secret that Shadis was preparing for his retirement, but having a soldier whom he hardly knew already devoted to him made him feel honored, regretful, and determined.

Good people die all the time, he reminded himself.

He balanced himself easily in his stirrups while he flew, blue eyes searching, searching for that glint of silver, a flash of black shadow. He could see Petra’s red hair in the distance, swooping up and over, then down and disappearing among the buildings. Erwin flew particularly close to the river, arcing just over the riverbank and observing a sailor unfurling a dingy grey sail.

Erwin was almost past when his eyes returned to the small vessel and his eyes narrowed. For a simple sailor with a poor sail, that was quite a cloak he wore. Erwin landed on a rooftop out of sight of the ship and whistled a shrill melody in three short blasts. In a matter of minutes, Mike, Hange, Moblit, and Petra landed on either side of him.

“What do you notice about the schooner below?”

One at a time, they peered over the peaked roof. Mike took the longest, scenting the air while Hange muttered, “That’s an expensive cloak for such a lame ship.”

“3DMG,” Mike informed suddenly. “He’s hiding it under the cloak.”

Hange grinned. “Are we swan-diving this thing?”

“No,” Erwin countered. “We observe first. Spread out.”

She pouted but without another word, they scattered. Erwin remained where he was, directly over the ship and followed at a discrete distance when it cruised over the water. It crossed what began to feel like miles and Erwin’s body clock told him it was the early hours of the morning. Down here it was impossible to tell what time of day it truly was but he knew that if he was experiencing fatigue, his team was likely feeling it worse.

He whistled again and they rendezvoused. The younger team members were obviously tired but Hange seemed simply frustrated and Mike contemplative.

“Nothing’s happened!” she piped, louder than necessary. “He’s just sailing around! They’re onto us!”

“What did you expect?” Mike countered. “With his hearing, did you think this would be easy? He probably knew the moment we landed down here.”

Moblit was not in the mood for cryptic assumptions. Rubbing his weary eyes, he muttered, “We could just demand to search the ship. If they attack, then maybe I’ll wake back up.”

Petra took the words right out of Erwin’s mouth: “We need to catch them in an act. They’re behaving because they know we’re watching them.”

He watched the craft continue sailing. For all they knew, they could be directly below Trost and he could return to his large, waiting bed…

Just as quickly as his mind reached for it desperately, something cringed at the cold emptiness that awaited him and Erwin blinked, shocked at himself. He felt like some part of him just reared its teeth, refusing to sleep in that bed until the company he wanted was returned to it.

“Just take it.”

His team members gazed at him, shocked and puzzled. Erwin repeated. “We’re wasting time. Capture the ship.”

He heard the hiss of gear and the flap of cloaks as they flew behind him. In less than a minute, their boots landed on the deck and they…looked around an empty ship. “Moblit, Petra, look below,” Erwin commanded but Mike called his attention.

“Erwin.”

He followed his squad leader's gaze up to a structure overlooking the river, and the figure standing on its roof in silhouette. Its feet were planted wide, strong, but even from this distance, Erwin knew the figure was small. He waited for the head to turn, for light to flash across those eyes, but it never happened. The figure turned, and fell out of view. Erwin heard the telltale hiss of 3DMG but he remained where he stood.

It never even occurred to him that someone just as petite as Levi could be responsible. Levi might not even be here. Why would he? The Underground was awful, a place of misery and desperation.

“The hull is empty, Captain,” Moblit informed a minute later. Erwin knew Mike was watching him, awaiting his decision.

Resigned, he declared, “We need rest. Retreat to the surface. We return here at nightfall.”

Mike grasped his elbow and murmured out of earshot. “How do you plan on finding him tomorrow? Shouldn’t we go after him now?”

Erwin would have gladly gone after Levi, or whoever the figure was, with Mike, but they hadn’t seen him or his companions use the gear yet. They had no idea what they were dealing until then, and his team needed their rest.

“There are barges to plunder. They’ll make themselves known to us.”

 

Erwin’s feet sensed the tiles slipping underneath his boots but he ran onward, reaching the edge of the roof. Finally. The cries of sailors sinking with their ship full of narcotics and stimulants had reached his ears, and he’d shot off like a bullet. The deed was done regarding the ship, but that was not what Erwin cared about.

His eyes locked on the three figures dashing beneath the peaks of buildings on the cramped horizon. In his peripheral, he could see Petra and Mike already reacting. In no time Moblit and Hange would be on their way.

Erwin leaped and felt his grapples find their marks, swinging him several blocks forward with the help of gas and he soon heard the hissed screeches of the stolen 3DMG. Mike was already right behind him and they synchronously swerved right, then left, and there they were: three figures flying at different speeds away from the site. They were obviously skilled with the gear, immediately splitting off to go in alternant directions.

“Got him,” Mike proclaimed, shooting to the right.

“Got it,” Petra chimed, shooting right past Erwin to the left. He immediately knew he had the wrong person, because they were simply too easy to capture. Erwin tackled him on a roof and narrowed his eyes at the healthy, nut-brown complexion.

“On your knees,” he growled, disabling his gas lines while the young man obediently crawled to rest on his heels. A gruff collision sounded and Erwin turned to see Mike dropping a longhaired blonde beside Erwin’s catch.

“Wait, Petra went after…”

“Shit,” Mike huffed, and flew off.

Erwin turned to see Hange and Moblit landing on the edge of the roof, keeping to the perimeter for security when Petra suddenly landed with a body angrily sprawled beneath her. Erwin’s brows lifted, impressed, while she quickly looked around and wondered, “Where’s Mike?”

“Gone to help you,” he replied, a hint of amusement in his tone. It quickly vanished, however, when his eyes lowered to the figure lying beneath her. His hair was dark and long enough to cover his eyes but there was a filthy bandana-like fabric in his hair where ears should have been. Erwin swallowed thickly and murmured, “Put him beside the others.”

Their hands were tied behind their backs and gas lines disconnectsed before Erwin stood before them and interrogated. “I would ask what guild you belong to but I don’t think you have one.”

The man who was the sailor peeked up at him with an amused glint in his eye but he bowed his head once more like the others and said nothing. Mike returned right at that moment and grabbed the blonde’s hair to smash his head on the tile at his knees.

“You will respect the Captain and future Commander of the Survey Corps,” he growled.

The sailor gasped a shaky laugh and uttered. “I know Erwin well enough even if he doesn’t remember me. Give Nile my regards.”

Erwin’s attention jerked to him and Mike hoisted his head up for him to see. The man explained, “I used to be prettier, but I was one of the few who could keep up with you, Smith.”

Suddenly, Erwin recognized the face, but he couldn’t quite place it. He searched him memory for a name, a setting to place that face, but Mike was the one who remembered first. With a sniff and a grimace he said, “You fucking reek, Eld. I barely recognized you since you took up smoking.”

“I thought you joined the Police,” Erwin recalled.

Eld cast him a mild glare. “Nile’s a good man but he’s a fool. I don’t have the patience for corrupt pricks.”

“So you chose Underground crime instead? Charming,” Mike scoffed, releasing him and moving on to the next man. He immediately recognized that this one smelled different, cleaner. “You’re a land dweller.”

Gunther grimaced against the hold on his hair. “Y-Yes. My name’s Gunther.”

“Why are you here?” Erwin asked calmly.

“I’ve never really liked starving,” the man admitted.

Erwin couldn’t fault him for that. “Why did you follow this mad quest to destroy subterranean economy?”

“Tfft.”

Erwin glanced at the third and final man but Mike was too quick. The man cried out when his hair was gripped and he was pushed face first into the dirty rooftop.

“You’re their leader, then?” Erwin inquired. He received no answer, but he hadn't expected one. “You’re making quite the number of enemies down here. Who do you hate so much to do this for?”

Eld was the one who answered, “Come on, Smith. You know the Police were always corrupt. Something had to be done.”

Mike spoke next. “I remember you being smart, Eld, but not this rash.” His grip tightened on the leader’s hair, eliciting a weak, angry mewl.

Gunther spoke up rapidly, “H-He doesn’t speak the language! You shouldn’t hurt him like that!”

Mike scoffed but released his hold. The small man slowly resumed his kneeling position with his head bowed. Erwin was pacing before them, wondering what he should ask next, what was the right question that would unravel their intentions.

He stopped pacing when he realized that both Eld and Gunther were warily watching their leader out of the corners of their eyes. Slowly coming to stand before him, Erwin examined his countenance, and his lips parted when he saw blood drip past his nose. A small puddle was forming beneath his face.

Erwin’s mind processed the puzzle pieces very quickly: Levi cut his tail off. The man didn’t have ears. Levi would cut his ears off. The man’s raiment was stained but no putrid stench came off him. His hair was far cleaner than the others’ and those clothes were so large they could fit Erwin.

He wrenched the rolled fabric off the man's scalp and revealed two large, rough scabs oozing blood. Erwin grabbed the strong, angular chin, and jerked it up, pushing black tresses aside to reveal wide, silver eyes.

“Levi…” he exclaimed, but it came out in a rushed breath. Erwin only had a glimpse of the face that was now a matured man’s, marred by thick crimson soaking into his brows and sliding around his eyes.

But Levi’s teeth were bared and he spit right into Erwin’s eye, suddenly swinging a leg out and kicking his feet out from under him. Erwin registered the snap of his bindings before Levi was crouching over him, arm raised.

“AAAHH!” Erwin heard the yell tear from his throat involuntarily when the knife plunged into his chest, in the crevasse of his collarbone and shoulder. He tried to rise off his back but Levi used him as a platform to jump, and he disappeared over the edge of the roof.

“Oh my god! Ohmygod! OHMYGOD!” Hange was screaming, running forward as if to catch Levi. Erwin rolled over just in time to see him expertly reconnect his gas lines, aim his grapples, and shoot upwards.

Petra breathed, “Oh my god…” as well when they saw Levi gracefully back flip upward, and then used his gas to dive forward. Within a second, he twisted his body and went feet-first into a hole in the side of a building two blocks away that looked far too small for anyone to fit through, but he did, and he was out of sight. “…He didn’t fly like that earlier.”

Erwin only had to look to see their other hostages missing to know why. “He wanted you to capture him. He needed to distract us for the others to get away.”

Mike quickly slid the blade from his shoulder and hoisted him to his feet. Frowning, Mike examined the knife. “Is this Nile’s silverware?”

Erwin glanced at the NMD on the handle but focused on staunching the blood flow from his shoulder. Hange immediately came over with an impossibly slim medical bag hidden under her jacket and proceeded with first aid. Meanwhile, Mike reiterated the same question as before: “How are we going to catch the little shit, now?"

“What is the key instrument he has at his disposal?”

“3DMG,” Mike answered easily.

“And what does 3DMG require that Levi does not have in ready supply?”

Mike’s eyes widened. “Gas. The way he flies, he’ll burn through gas and need to refill soon.”

Pain and fatigue seized in Erwin’s chest as he held his bandaged shoulder but he gritted, “Precisely. We need to monitor gas store inventories to see where he is restocking.”

His eyes slid over to the bandage stained with brown and red that Levi had worn, and Erwin gripped his shoulder more firmly.

Oh Levi…do you hate me that much?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, I have 40 subscribers! and over 140 kudos! For having an unfinished story uploaded for less than three weeks that's incredible! You guys are the real MVRs (Most Valued Readers).


	11. Capable of Anything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the expedition coming nearer and nearer, Erwin makes a last ditch effort to bring Levi home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

By the time Erwin’s shoulder was healed enough to go without wrappings, it had proved nearly impossible to find Levi. He kept an impeccably low profile, causing Erwin to wonder if he’d given up his Underground schemes entirely. Erwin, with his injury and the excursion only a few weeks away, had to return to headquarters to finalize details. One evening, as he was looking over the final drafts of the plans with Shadis, Erwin realized his commander had been watching him intently all evening.

Upon lifting his gaze to Shadis’s, the elder man stated, “It never struck me that you were capable of giving up.”

Erwin was not sure how to respond since a myriad of emotions boiled under his placid mask. First and foremost, though, was annoyance. “Pardon me for taking my duties as Captain seriously. I thought I had a mission against thousands of titans to consider before dealing with a post-pubescent guardian who doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

He was faced, then, with one of Shadis’s raised, skeptical eyebrows. “I don’t intend to give up on this,” he defended, “but I cannot ignore the fact that Levi would sooner slit my throat than return to me.”

“Erwin…” Shadis sighed like he was genuinely put out. “A relationship with a kemon is shockingly similar to any other relationship. You get as much as you put into it. He is waiting for you to step up. Kemon don’t go out of their way for someone who isn’t worthy of their time. The reason he is so stubbornly independent is because, essentially, you haven’t staked your claim. There is incredible power in trusting someone enough to let them take care of you, but you have to earn that power, that trust.”

“I can’t be what he wants if he expects me to force him into things. I can’t chain him to me after he’s made it abundantly clear he doesn’t want to be.”

Shadis gave a weary smile. “No, son, don’t you see? It’s not actually about dominance or submission, ownership or slavery…if you let Levi give himself to you and if you take care of him, he will take care of you, in so many more ways than you can imagine…although I suppose the real trial you are facing is whether or not you can give yourself to him, but you’ll have to convince Levi to take you.”

Erwin scrubbed a hand over the side of his face, glaring through his split fingers. Shadis chuckled, finally returning his attention to his work with a lingering remark to Erwin: “I know. It’s far easier when there is an established alpha and omega, but things can become infinitely more interesting when you are willing to play both parts.”

On his way up to his room, Erwin slowly rotated his arm over his head, testing the muscles in his shoulder. There was a painful pull if he overextended himself, but thanks to Hange, he had healed rather quickly.

Inside his bedroom was a stack of ledgers on the table. Commander Pixis and Nile had been kind enough to loan him their logbooks of supplies, but they hardly revealed anything extraordinary. A crate of gas was misplaced here and there, but the missing items were so scattered that Levi was either collecting gas from too many sources to trace, or other mistakes happened of which Levi was innocent.

Erwin stripped down and entered his bathroom—and paused at the sight of the mirror. The glass was fogged with steam, slowly fading away. He didn’t need to feel for moisture inside the tub; there was a tiny puddle around the drain still.

He recalled Levi’s instant desire to be clean when he’d first been placed in the sink for a bath, and his constant insistence on daily washes. For someone who’d been raised in filth, Erwin had been glad to not have to teach him about hygiene…but the Survey Corps headquarters was so far out of the way, and there were hundreds of baths, even bathhouses, he could choose from…

Erwin was dressed again within seconds and descending the stairs two at a time. He startled several recruits on their way back from the local pub but hardly paid them attention as he strode toward the supply building.

All those ledgers, all those numbers, and I never even considered to look here…

He threw open the door of the 3DMG supply room. One of the recruits who’d been put on ledger duty had been scratching her head when Erwin startled her. “C-Captain! Good evening, I, uh…”

To her credit, the recruit gave a perfect salute but Erwin quickly waved her aside as if to could the gas crates himself. “Tell me the numbers.”

“Sir? Uh, well, they’re…”

“Tell me the numbers,” he repeated, out of patience. “If they’re uneven I need to know.”

He met the young girl’s wide-eyed stare, but instead of cowering, she seemed to grow more confident. “Yes sir, the numbers are uneven. We’re supposed to have fifty stores of gas but we only had forty-five last week, and looking over it again, we only have forty-one…”

“Thank you, Angela,” he said tersely, already heading out of the room.

“Y-You know my name, Captain?” she exclaimed.

Erwin glanced over his shoulder, knowing that in approximately three and a half weeks he might never see her again. “I know all of your names,” he said, and closed the door behind him.

 

Mike scratched his nose with a handkerchief scented with lilac and black tea. He’d explained once that breathing a familiar scent calmed his senses, and he certainly needed to give his nose a break after their constant presence in the Underground.

“How’s your arm?” he asked.

“Tense,” Erwin answered honestly, “but well.”

“Go easy until we have a sighting of them,” he advised from his end of the alleyway, not unlike when they’d first come to the Underground for a favor to Nile.

Erwin chuckled quietly. “Who is captain, here?”

“You’re welcome,” Mike answered proudly. “Goodness knows how many times I’ve saved your blond ass.”

Erwin smiled even though Mike did not see it. He was right: without Mike, Erwin would have perished a long time ago and it had been Mike who’d first recommended and supported Erwin as Captain and Commander.

“Thank you for coming, Mike,” he said in a hushed tone. They'd left Hange and the others above ground. This had to be jus the two of them; Erwin trusted no one else more with this task.

“Shut up. We can be sentimental when we’ve got the little shit back home safe.”

Erwin’s heart clenched and just as quickly relaxed. Home was where the sun shined and where rain wet the ground; where Mike laughed and where Hange’s eccentricity was. This was not Levi’s home, and Erwin would remind him of that.

A soft pinch drew Erwin’s attention to Mike’s side of the alley. They’d agreed to keep conversation to a minimal due to Levi’s hearing with or without his ears. Below them, Erwin recognized Gunther exiting what looked like one of the few clean restaurants of the Underground. A large parcel was under his arm and he wore his flying gear under a heavy cloak. Without moving, they watched him go down the street and turn out of sight.

“He won’t take a direct route to where ever they’re hiding,” Mike whispered.

Erwin agreed, “He will circle back here before making his way to the others.”

Sure enough, they soon watched Gunther flying past their alleyway again, this time on Erwin’s side. “They’ll be close,” he deduced, shrugging off his own cloak to ready his grapples. “Surround but do not attack until you see him. If Eld makes an appearance, capture him and Gunther.”

“Gladly,” Mike muttered, and flew in the opposite direction, intending to make a wide arc around Gunther’s route to avoid detection.

Erwin leap-frogged from roof to roof, alley to alley, tracking Gunther’s progress but keeping out of sight and using his equipment as little as possible. As convenient as 3DMG was, it was inconveniently loud…unless someone else was using it.

His eyes snapped to the left, instantly recognizing Eld’s blond head. Erwin remained where he was; blonde was the wrong color. He needed something darker, shorter…

If I was smaller and capable of anything, where would I…?

Erwin’s eyes snapped up just in time to see the glimmer of eyes above his head before a shadow flew over the alleyway. His grapples were already aimed and he was flying down the street a second later.

Watching Levi fly was like watching a bird of some kind…a sparrow or a falcon, something with both grace and cunning. He knew the Underground from above and within and used it to his best advantage, but Erwin had been here for weeks, and even the Underground had its patterns. He predicted Levi’s choice of movements based on the layout of the streets and Levi’s desires. For now, he was giving Eld and Gunther time to get away, and then he would make the dash for his own escape.

Erwin swerved closer to the first tier of buildings, flying through the streets and following Levi from underneath. He ducked under a bridge and cut through a shack of a house. When Erwin emerged onto the street, Levi was jumping off a rooftop. Upon seeing Erwin shooting upwards, he diverted to the right, using a spurt of gas before they collided.

Levi landed on a lower structure and tumbled into a roll before popping back to his feet. He ran and jumped, vaulting onto a higher platform and firing his gear to take to the air once more, but only to swing like a pendulum into a window. He landed on his feet in a sprint and used the momentum to jump clear through a broken a wall, firing his hooks out of the next window and bursting out of the building like a slingshot. Flipping and spiraling up, he flew around a series of corners and made his way through a covered tunnel when the rock and brick crumbled above his head.

Mike crashed into him. Their 3DMG chords tangled and snapped; Levi felt them falling at an angle and had a split second to protect his head from impacting with a pile of boxes on a cart. Splinters rained over the cobblestones as his back hit the ground. Levi grit his teeth against his spine skidding over the uneven stone but used the force to easily back-flip to his feet.

Procuring a new blade from his belt, he met Mike’s sword only long enough to throw his other hand forward, knuckles meeting the soft cartilage of Mike’s nose. The larger man recoiled as if he’d been burned but Levi knew he only had a second to either run or prepare for the man’s full weight and strength to be on top of him.

He was expecting Mike’s body, not Erwin’s. The blonde flew down from above, landing between Levi and Mike. The blade was knocked from Levi’s grasp but he retaliated with his bare hands. He’d never actually fought Erwin, and the man had the advantage of watching Levi combat Mike several times.

Erwin held his fists in a stalemate. Levi exhaled sharply through his nose and elegantly kicked upward, planting his feet on Erwin’s shoulders. Pain erupted throughout his chest, forcing him to release Levi’s hands. Levi had one functional grapple left and he used it to swing onto the nearest structure before taking off on his hands and feet.

He heard Erwin’s 3DMG before he saw it and twisted just in time to intercept Erwin’s reach. Levi grabbed for the gas line, and Erwin came to a sputtering stop, landing and rolling across the rooftop ungracefully.

When the world ceased its spinning, he struggled to refill his lungs. Rising onto his elbows, Erwin looked for Levi, and found a whole other reason for lack of breathing. Even with the loose fabric hanging off his shoulders, Erwin could see that Levi's legs were built of slim, elegant muscle and his chest was strong as he strode forward. They way his hips gently swayed in time with his shoulders, Erwin stared dumbly at the man Levi had grown to be—a shockingly handsome one with a powerful body and beautiful face.

Erwin’s lungs still burned for air as Levi sauntered around him, his grey eyes glinting with silver. “You want me to sing for you like Freckles did?” he taunted.

Something flared inside Erwin and his lungs filled. He unlocked one of his grapples and let the chord slither out to pool by his hip. The cable swung twice over his head before Erwin released it, and it wrapped around Levi’s neck. Levi landed on his back with a choked sound the same moment Mike landed behind them with Eld and Gunther dejectedly in tow.

Erwin stood over Levi’s reddening face, full of hatred and panic as he clawed at the unrelenting noose. Crouching over him, Erwin purred, “I’m sorry, Levi. I made you a promise…but it seems I’m capable of breaking those more so than keeping them.”

He glanced at Gunther and Eld, anxiously awaiting his verdict. Levi was wheezing for air now; thin tears slipped past his temples.

“You’re not afraid of anything, Levi. You never have been. You would look after your enemy personally, same as I would. You’re too good for this rotten place and you’ll never return here again. Welcome to the Survey Corps, whether you hate me for it or not.” 

Levi was officially purple, and Erwin easily uncoiled the rope just as his eyes fluttered and he fainted. As Mike ushered the other two men on their feet, Erwin hoisted Levi over his good shoulder and turned to see thick wads of cloth stuffed up Mike’s nostrils.

“He broke my nose, the little fucker!” he complained in a muffled, nasally tone. “Is nothing sacred?”

Eld chuckled a wary laugh. “In this world, not much is.”

Gunther lifted his gaze to meet Erwin’s. “Are we joining the Corps as well?”

Eld reasoned, “It’s the titans or the Police brats. At least titans make quick work of their prey.”

“We go beyond the walls in three weeks,” Erwin informed. “You’ll be with us when we do.”

Both Eld and Gunther paled. The former muttered, “Quick indeed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank goodness for Papa Shadis, that's all I have to say. ;)


	12. The Expedition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the first expedition with Erwin as Commander, but the unseasonal weather is having a dangerous affect on the titans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DOUBLE UPDATE WHAT.

Hange looked over the prone form on Erwin’s office couch. “Mmh,” she shook her head. “He needs a haircut. Did you really have to strangle him?”

Erwin sighed, combing his dusty hair off his equally dirty face. “It wasn’t like I had a lot of options. It doesn’t matter now. You need to make sure his scalp isn’t infected.”

Hange crouched beside the sofa, carefully flicking locks of hair off of his scabs. Erwin leaned over to see the state of them and was shocked to find that instead of open ear canals, Levi had ultra thin skin covering the canal and eardrum.

“Just as I figured,” Hange whispered since she was so close. “The clean freak wouldn’t let it get infected. The scabs are almost gone, too. Even down there, it’s incredible he managed it.”

“He’s been sneaking back here and using my bathroom,” Erwin murmured.

Hange bit back a snort of laughter but it quickly faded. “Still, it’s so sad that he did this to his ears. First the Underground, and now the titans…”

“Don’t,” Erwin curtailed. “The expedition will be difficult enough without this hanging over our heads.”

For a moment, they simply watched Levi sleep; the calm before the storm. “What are you gonna do when he wakes?” she asked.

Erwin inhaled…then exhaled. “Let him hate me, I suppose. If he wants to kill me, hardly anyone will notice while we’re surrounded by titans.”

Hange looked at him with deep concern and anger in her eyes. “You’re not going to talk to him?”

“It doesn’t matter how much I say if he won’t listen,” Erwin defended.

She scoffed, tossing her hair as she looked back at the sleeping figure. “He’s got four eardrums! He’ll hear you fine! Now the real question: should I cut his hair before or after he wakes up?”

Erwin shook his head. “Either way, the first person he sees shouldn’t be me. Mike’s almost finished bathing so he’ll be here to help you soon.”

He kept his footfalls light as he went to the door. He glanced back and saw the harsh red line where his cable had constricted Levi’s throat. Hange murmured as quietly as she could manage, “You know, I’m excited this time. I mean, sure, I’m the only one who ever looks forward to seeing colossal man-eating monsters, but I feel better about this excursion than the others. Feel as guilty as you want, but I agree with your judgment. We need him.”

Erwin let that hover in the air and went to take his own bath. Dust and dirt rained to the floor as he stiffly removed his cloak, harness, and uniform. The bath filled with lukewarm water since Mike had just used a portion of it, but Erwin didn’t mind. Water of any kind was what he needed, along with a quiet environment.

After he’d sufficiently raked every morsel of grime from his hair and body, he drained the tub and dried before donning loose pajama pants and a button-up shirt. He was sweeping and scrubbing the dirt off the bathroom floor when a knock sounded at the bedroom door.

Erwin never expected the person to be Levi. His hair was now two inches shorter and Erwin noticed Hange had gotten a bit ecstatic in the back, trimming an undercut not unlike Erwin’s. He met Levi’s deadpan stare evenly.

“I’m not bathing in the communal bathroom,” he stated sharply.

Erwin lifted a dark blond brow. Was now the time to appease the man and let him bathe in comfort, or play the captain and force Levi to bathe where the other soldiers did?

He came to the conclusion that no matter where Levi washed, the water would now be cold. That, as well as swallowing his pride to even ask Erwin, was punishment enough.

Silently he stepped aside and watched Levi stride directly to the bathroom, shutting it firmly behind him. He heard the soft scratching of bristles on Levi’s skin while he packed away the ledger books to send back to Nile and Pixis. When Levi was taking longer than normal to bathe, Erwin rapped on the door. “Levi, you need a layer of skin to remain. Stop scrubbing and get out of the bath.”

He emerged not long after wearing fresh clothes that actually fit him for once, but his hair was already partially dry. He left as if he’d never been there, but Erwin peeked into the bathroom to find it sparklingly clean. Really, he should have picked up on the fact that Levi had been using his bathroom sooner, because Erwin hadn’t needed to clean it for so long.

He visited Mike’s room before calling it a night. “How’s your nose?”

The man rolled his eyes. “I’ll be able to breathe again by the time we’re out of the wall but the titans will have an advantage on us.”

“We’ll make do,” he moved on. “How are the recruits taking to Eld, Gunther, and Levi?”

“I put those three in their own barracks room. The last thing we need are a bunch of pip-squeaks whining about how Levi and Gunther didn’t have to go through the three years of training.”

“In a way, they went through more training than the recruits did,” Erwin justified. “Thanks for doing that, Mike.”

“No problem. I’ll be overseeing the final training sessions to make sure no fights break out. Hey, Smith,” he called as Erwin meandered toward the door. “Did you see Hange’s work on him? Your style looks good on him. Birds of a feather.”

Erwin relinquished a smile and left for his own bed. As he shut his bedroom door, he consciously locked it, just in case. If Levi wanted him dead, he could do it in three weeks, but not before.

 

“I won’t be joining this expedition,” Shadis informed a week before the departure date. He’d told Erwin and the other squad leaders a few days prior to now, but the dining hall palpably tensed at this news. Shadis transferred his regards and his faith in everyone as well as his apologies before telling them that from this point on, Erwin Smith was essentially their Commander. Shadis had revealed to Erwin in the privacy of his own office that the funeral pyres of this expedition were the last he was going to see before officially retiring.

Erwin glanced at Levi to the right, at a table in the back by a window with Eld, Gunther, and a couple others. Erwin was surprised when Mike had told him how the recruits were gravitating toward Levi despite the man’s obvious disdain for attention. After assisting a training session with Mike, he immediately understood why: Levi was not only the best flier, but also the strongest and fastest at slicing through the titan dummies.

Levi gave the soldiers hope.

He and Erwin hadn’t interacted ever since they returned from the Underground. Levi came in the evenings to use his bathroom and left without a word. Most of the time, Erwin wasn’t even in his room to let him in, but was instead cooped up in his office memorizing formations and emergency contingents. Erwin, Hange, and Shadis had easily created false papers for Levi’s recruitment, and if he survived after next week Erwin knew he could easily slide up the ranks of the Corps. He wanted to approach Levi and start building a foundation of friendship, if such a thing was even possible, but his conscience reminded him that they had a week to wait and even longer to survive. After that test, maybe they could reform what was broken.

Several people came up to Erwin to congratulate and speak with him after Shadis’s announcement. Erwin was both glad and peeved that so many were willing to voice their anxieties about the upcoming mission to scout territory and observe titan behavior. He gave them as many reassurances as he could while still being honest and then escaped from the dining hall. He was turning down the corridor of his office when he saw Levi and Shadis conversing in front of the latter’s office. The way Levi’s body was positioned, Erwin could tell Shadis had caught him on his way up to Erwin’s bathtub.

Shadis’s words were not audible but Erwin watched him offer a hand to Levi; not to shake, because it was palm up. Levi hesitated a long moment, so long that it was a wonder Shadis kept his hand open. Finally, Levi opened his own hand, palm down to rest over Shadis’s. A second later, he was marching down the corridor and up the stairs on quiet footsteps.

Erwin almost approached the man, but he waited too long. Shadis disappeared within his office to finish off his retirement papers, and Erwin retreated into his.

 

“COMMANDER! RED FLARES ON OUR LEFT!”

Erwin had already seen them, and was aiming his own flare gun above his head. Green smoke shot into the sky, and he heard the hoof beats as riders followed the redirection.

The territory they needed to get to by nightfall was to the left, but they could circle back around at any point to avoid the area populated by titans. They needed to get the parameters of the unknown forest. It had been glimpsed during previous expeditions but because the trees looked like they were tall enough to provide shelter and advantage, they needed to confirm this before extending potential territory.

A black flare went up on his right.

“MIKE!” he ordered over the wind.

“GOT IT!” he returned, and he left with is squad to assist with the abnormal. It felt like hours even though it may have been only minutes before Mike’s squad returned. “Six down!”

Six dead, but those were the first casualties after being out here for three days; that in itself was reason to keep going. Erwin fired another green flare, informing the others to begin turning left. He could see the fuzz of dark pines on the horizon, growing larger and larger—

Three black flares sprang up all around them. “Shit!” he heard others curse. More colorful terms were on the tip of his tongue when he saw that two of the black pillars were near each other, a few miles off where Hange was.

Gunther had been placed in Erwin’s squad, and was riding a pace behind him even now. Eld was in Mike’s since only someone of seniority could be placed on his squad…but Levi was with Hange.

Erwin fired another flare, signaling for everyone to continue toward the forest at breakneck pace, but he commanded Mike to go help with the abnormal on the right and sent another squad to the left. More flares, both red and green, went up to join the two black ones that were fading in the wind, confirming Erwin’s command and warning him.

The trees were close now, close enough to make out tree trunks beneath the haze of green…

Except the brown tree trunks weren’t trunks. They were titans.

“PULL BACK!” Erwin bellowed, quickly firing two green flares behind him.

His gaze tore to the left, where Hange’s squad was coming into view. Erwin was exclaiming, “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” under his breath as he saw the figures as large as trees sway toward the group of human food.

About a dozen black flares took to the sky, but as they spiraled upward, Erwin’s stomach plummeted lower. He wanted to shout orders to retreat, to fall back, and hope that Hange’s and the other squads would outrun the hoard of titans in time.

Instead, he felt his heels dig into his horse’s ribs. He felt his arm aim a green flare in the direction of Hange’s squad, and he saw Mike in his peripheral, returned to his side and riding just as hard as he was toward the danger.

“ENGAGE THE CLOSEST ONES! ATTACK AND RETREAT! SAVE YOUR COMRADES!”

One of the abnormals was easy to spot, because it was standing dumbly while all the other titans dragged forward. That was one blessing, but it was hardly anything considering there were almost twenty other titans reaching for any piece of human they could get.

Erwin saw green cloaks fly as men and women leaped from their saddles and used the titans’ bodies to gain altitude. He watched as an abnormal caught a young recruit in its maw, biting down too quickly for anyone to save and spilling blood from its teeth.

Just as suddenly, a green and black twist of movement slashed across the abnormal’s neck, and it fell with the corpse still in its jaws. Erwin knew it was Levi as the figure flew from titan to titan, swerving through grabbing limbs and taking down three in one go. Erwin and Mike finally reached the fray, leaving their horses behind and teaming up to take down an abnormal, and then another. Erwin felt his blades cut through fatty muscle and tendons of regular titans in passing, but the abnormals were what needed to be taken down.

“THE ABNORMALS! WE CAN OUTRUN THE REST!”

He heard Hange’s maniacal scream as she took down a titan that crawled on all fours. She was the only one who would do it with tears in her eyes but that did not lessen her power.

“RETREAT! TO THE TREES!”

THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!

3DMG landed in towering trees, providing the only source of safety when they still had eleven titans to deal with. Erwin’s boots landed on a branch as wide as two horses standing side by side, and he turned to see Mike finishing off the last abnormal. Levi and others were still combatting a couple titans snapping hungrily at the air. As one of them batted the air, catching Levi’s cable and forcing him to fly disconcertingly close to the ground, Erwin bellowed, “IN THE TREES! NOW!”

The titans followed them under the shadows of the trees. Their swipes and jumps became lethargic and soon they merely stared up at them, jaws slackening to wait for someone to fall. Hange was beside herself on the branch under Erwin’s.

“It’s just like at night! The less light, the less energetic they become! Oh, this could be monumental towards night expeditions—”

“The last thing we need right now is to terrify new recruits by the prospect of darkness while they can see death beneath their feet,” he hissed down to her. “MOBLIT!”

He flew over immediately from the neighboring tree to join Hange. He thrust one of her notebooks underneath her nose and her voice lowered as she hastily scribbled her observations.

Erwin rotated and scanned the trees for Mike. Joining him, he and his squad leader gathered the soldiers into their individual squads and assigned separate tasks. One group was to assess the damage, another was to remain here and assist Hange in her studies, and the rest were sent to scout the forest. Erwin found Levi and grabbed his shoulder, holding him in place while the others flew to their tasks.

“Next time I tell you to retreat, that is not a choice.”

Levi shook off his hand. “I was on my way.”

Erwin gripped his shoulder again, this time spinning him around until his shoulder blades pressed against the base of the tree. “Listen to me! People follow you, Levi. If you stay down there, others will too, and they did. There are fresh recruits here who don’t have your experience. You need to be mindful of your actions and how they could affect others.”

“It’s not my fault they ignore what they’re told,” he defended hotly, “or that they’re too stupid to figure out that skill isn’t contagious.”

“Levi,” Erwin iterated sternly, stepping closer so that Levi had to lift his chin to glare into Erwin’s eyes. “I know you’re one of the best here. Mike knows it. Hange knows it. Petra, Moblit, and just about everyone else has seen you fly. There’s nothing you need to prove.”

He scowled. “I’m not trying to prove anything. I’ve been dealing with giants my entire life. You brought me here to do what I do best. So fuck off and let me do it.”

He shifted his weight off the tree and took his handles out of the holsters to fly and catch up with the others, but Erwin placed a large palm over his chest, holding him in place. Levi’s eyes flitted from Erwin’s hand to his face. The blonde could feel his heart pound strongly against his palm.

“Your job is to stay alive. Killing titans is second on your list. Do you understand?”

Levi’s heart beat an uneven rhythm against Erwin’s flesh. Erwin’s lips parted and he felt his own organ pump against his ribs, rushing blood through his neck and the rest of his body. Right when he was sure that the drumming in his own ears matched the beat pulsing from Levi's chest, Levi swatted his hand off and fired at the tree several meters away and was out of his reach.

A recruit landed beside him and reported that their casualty list was only fourteen. Out of one hundred and ninety soldiers approaching four days beyond the wall, that number was astounding. Erwin knew that luck would not last, but he intended to take every precaution necessary to stretch it as long as possible.

As night began to fall, the squads returned with their maps drawn up. A pair of groups reported titans lingering in specific corners of the forest, but overall the trees stretched over more than ten square miles and sported a wide creek and assortment of wildlife. Erwin took volunteers to kill the last remaining titans, which hardly fought back since they had slumped for their nightly rest.

The Commander saw Levi settle in Hange’s tree for the night with Petra Ral on the same branch. Erwin heard his voice carry over the air with sharp remarks, to which Petra readily sassed in return. Mike landed on the other side of Erwin’s tree and they secured their gear to the wood before locking the cables to keep them from falling while they slept.

The following morning, they were awoken by thunderstorms rattling the sky. In their haste to reach the trees, the wagons had been abandoned in the open terrain. Erwin would have kept them in the forest to wait out the storm, but they needed their supplies, and his own stomach was growling in protest.

“Angela! Moblit! Scout the forest exterior. If it’s open, call the horses and we’ll start our route back to the wall.”

When they returned, they confirmed the route clear albeit for titan figures along the horizon. The titans would be moving slower than usual due to the rain, but so would the humans because of mud and lack of visibility. The horses answered their riders’ whistles and they set off, only briefly held up because some of the newest recruits complained about leaving the bodies behind.

They reformed their contingent around the wagons after watering the horses and distributing granola to the soldiers for breakfast. Not unlike the first three days, the trek back was eerily uneventful. Hange was full of theories as to why.

“It could be because the seasons changing! This is irregular weather we’re having, I mean, it’s practically December and it’s still reasonably warm! They might be as puzzled as we are by it! Or the topography could be affecting the weather so they’re gravitating toward other places…”

Two days later, one of those places proved to be the wall, right in front of their gate. “Oh,” Hange said abruptly. “That’s a problem.”

She rarely stated the obvious, but the situation was just that bad. And it only got worse.

“COMMANDER! FLARES BEHIND US!”

Erwin twisted in his saddle to observe the spikes of red reaching for the clouds. In the three days it took to come back to the wall, it had rained almost the entire time. They’d lost a wagon because a wheel had spun off and a horse twisted its ankle. They were all tired, sodden, and just wanted a warm, dry place. Their formation was tight due to the narrow gate opening, but with another couple dozen titans waiting for them, and who knew how many behind, they were practically a nicely wrapped bundle of food.

He fired a green flare straight ahead, praying that the rain did not ruin all the flares before the watchers on the wall were alerted of their presence.

“CLEAR THE GATE! DISTRACT AND DIVIDE!”

Their formation split in two when it became apparent that the titans had seen them. They scattered from the gate, following their chosen morsels of prey. Erwin rode to the rear of the left side to assess how many titans were sandwiching them to the threat by the gate. He heard screams before he got there, but he saw a torn arm here, and a broken horse there, its unnaturally crooked spine the worst omen he could have seen. Titans did not target anything other than humans; they only went for the horse by coincidence or if it was abnormal.

His horse shied as a massive figure leapt right over his head, and then buckled as the ground trembled when the titan landed. Erwin tucked his shoulder to roll safely over the grass and rose to a kneeling position. He locked his blades into his handles and flew over the shoulder of the titan reaching for him. Erwin swung behind its nape, tearing through its flesh and soaring on to the next target.

The titan was rather short but its arms were exceedingly long. Once Erwin slipped past its quick hands, he was free to slice its weak spot. His grapples were anchored in its shoulder as he did so, but the abnormal collided with it, dragging Erwin through the air. He only just managed to disengage and reconnect with another titan. The heels of his boots dug into the earth as he swung around its ankles. A burst of gas pushed him upward, but his cut was clumsy and he had to strike twice.

He landed on another titan only to keep off the ground, where the four-legged titan was tearing at men and women whether they were alive or dead. From his vantage point, Erwin saw that the gates were finally open and his scouts were galloping through it, those that were still atop their horses anyway. Some doubled back to give the horseless rides before the titans found them.

The bells began to toll on top of the wall, signaling that they were soon to close. Erwin whistled for his horse and saw his white stallion rushing beneath the shadow of his perch, the abnormal titan looking around at the movement.

 

Levi flicked the switch that unlocked his broken blades and threw them aside. He angrily raked a hand through his sopping wet hair. Even with all the rain he felt the grit of mud in his crevasses and planned to be the first in Erwin’s bath whether he was Commander or not. Speaking of…

He turned around to scan the crowd of injured and exhausted soldiers filing through the street. The gates closed with an echoing hush as he peered among the weary faces, the mud-soaked attire, and half dead postures. Even in the rain and filth, that high blond head would be easy to find…

He found the next biggest and blondest thing. “MIKE! Where’s Erwin?”

Mike’s head perked up, one eye swollen shut but his nostrils flared as he breathed in his surroundings. His one eye widened and his head swiveled as if his nose was lying. He and Levi looked at the locked gate. “NO!” Mike cursed. “He didn’t make it through! LEVI!”

Whether it was a command or a warning, he was already sprinting through the soldiers and horses, until his hooks smashed into stone and he was flying up the subtle curve of the wall. Thick droplets landed in his eyes but he blinked against them. Levi’s body spiraled and landed atop the wall moments later, but he startled the Garrison soldiers as he burst through their ranks and dived clean over the other side.

One of Levi’s grapples held him securely while he half-ran, half-fell down the side of the wall, locking fresh blades into his handles as he went. When he heard Erwin’s angry shout, he kicked off, free falling with gas propelling him over lingering titans' heads.

Erwin was battling a rogue titan that crawled around on all fours, bent like spider’s legs and faster than anything he’d seen. Levi hooked into the arm reaching for him but swung under it to get to his target. A titan stood between he and Erwin when the blond was clamped in the abnormal’s hand. Levi obliterated right through his obstacle's throat and collided with the abnormal’s hand, severing its wrist—and Erwin—from its body.

Levi flew up its arm, his body twisting to grow momentum and tearing through flesh all the way to its nape. The beast rolled but Levi tucked under its chin at the last second, waiting until it stood up to finish the job.

By then the remaining fourteen titans surrounded them, but Levi barely paused. He swooped between one’s legs, flying up its back and severing the tendons at the nape. He dived to tear apart the fingers reaching for Erwin and flew above and around, slashing and annihilating every giant he could reach until his gas sputtered and he hung from one cable.

Tearing off his harness, Levi swung and landed on the hand reaching for him. He ran along the forearm, swerved at the elbow, and without stopping he plunged his blades into the titan’s nape. He could feel the unnatural flesh begin to melt, causing his feet to sink as the corpse fell.

He landed in a roll, popping to his feet and lunging for Erwin. The man was all but dead on his feet, wobbly as he hung onto his horse’s saddle but had not managed to actually get atop it.

“Levi…” he breathed, eyes cracked open just enough to see him.

“Get on the fucking saddle, you blond tree!” Levi gripped Erwin’s harness by his hips and heaved. The man slumped indignantly over the saddle horn, but before Levi could push his leg over, he realized he had two more titans to deal with. His harness was gone. He should have saved it and just traded with Erwin’s gas tanks but now it was too late.

Levi vaulted over the saddle and whistled shrilly through his teeth. The stallion leapt into action, galloping like fire had been set to its hindquarters. He hadn’t thought this far ahead. The gate was still closed. Could he use Erwin’s 3DMG if the man wearing it was no longer conscious?

“I DON’T CARE IF THERE ARE TWO LEFT! OPEN THE FUCKING GATES!”

“Mike! Just break that lever! I’ve got this one and the gate will open about three feet wide! That will be enough!”

Levi’s head perked up, processing the sound Mike’s bellow and Hange’s cackling laughter before the grinding of gears reverberated over his sensitive scalp. Sure enough, the towering doors split open just wide enough for one horseman to pass through. Levi held Erwin steady on the saddle and moved his pelvis in time with the stallion’s frantic movements, spurring it onward.

They shot through the gate just as it began to grind closed. Despite the exhaustion of the soldiers, the applause that greeted them was raucous, and civilians had come out into the rain to see what was happening. Levi settled in the saddle and the horse felt his weight, taking the command to slow and then stop.

Levi slid off with Erwin in tow, but when his boots hit the ground, his knees collapsed unexpectedly. He recognized Petra’s voice and Moblit’s baritone as hands caught him and he became aware of how badly he was shaking. He still held Erwin in his arms but they had to lower Levi to the ground before Mike and Hange approached.

“We’ve got him, Levi!” she chimed. “You’re both in shock! We’ve got you!”

“Let go, Rivaille.”

Levi gazed through wide, storm grey eyes up at Mike, with Hange’s exceedingly wide grin behind his broad shoulder. Levi's grip on Erwin began to loosen, and finally Mike as able to hook his arms under Erwin’s to take him.

“Rivaille…”

Mike paused, just as stunned as Levi was that Erwin was still awake. He lifted an open hand, reaching for Levi, who winced when he saw what Erwin was reaching for. But he surprised him by gently stroking his palm over Levi’s scalp, taking great care to not aggravate his scars and ears. Levi felt his cranium lightly arcing up into his touch.

“Have I been pronouncing it wrong all this time?” Erwin asked, but no sooner did the last syllable leave his lips, then he officially fainted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Emotionally prepare, my lovelies, there will probably only be two, three, or four more chapters after this one :( (whenever I decide haha) but I've loved this story so far and everyone who is kind enough to spare time to read it. I'll make the finale as epic as I can ;)


	13. Protocol

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erwin takes time to recover after his expedition and begins to understand how powerful a kemon's connection can be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might be my favorite chapter so far. ALSO, this artist's work is just divine: http://brilcrist.tumblr.com/post/71702181619/the-unfinished-snk-fanbook-this-was-suppose-to

When Erwin opened his eyes, he could not have said what time it was, let alone what day. His body felt like his blood had been replaced with heavy mercury and the only thing he could comprehend was that he was in his own bed.

That was a nice surprise. Why was it a nice surprise? _Oh…the gates…titans…the expedition…_

The room tipped when he looked toward the door. Had he hit his head on something? He was lying in bed and yet vertigo put the world on a tilt.

“Mike.”

The man himself breezed into the room. Erwin was not surprised he’d been standing right outside the door, waiting. “Morning, sunshine.”

“Why do I feel like this?” Erwin grumbled.

Mike smiled consolingly. “You landed pretty hard when the abnormal dropped you. Well, when Levi cut its hand off. Not a severe concussion but still unpleasant. Obviously you’re bedridden but we’ve got everything covered until you recover and return from Sina.”

Erwin frowned. “Why am I going to Sina?”

“Typically Commanders are sworn into the position in the capital. The military loves its traditions.”

Erwin’s eyes opened a little wider and the room tilted a little more. “Oh…Shadis is officially retired, then?”

“As of yesterday,” Mike nodded, leaning against one of the bedposts. “But he’s sticking around until you can stand.”

Erwin tried to swallow but a straw touched his lips as if Mike knew his throat was parched. After a few long draws from the water, Erwin said more clearly, “How many?”

“Two thirds.”

Now the room was spinning.

“We don’t need to do this now, Erwin.”

“I should have commanded the march to an alternate gate; one that wasn’t surrounded by titans.”

“A week long expedition and you only lost fourteen soldiers. The Garrison on the wall and Survey survivors are witnesses to that. Frankly, it’s the Garrison's fault for not clearing the gate when they saw us coming, or keeping it clear the whole time. Commander Pixis is aware of this. You should have seen him—”

“Pixis was here?” Erwin exclaimed. His heart began pounding in his chest, but whether from excitement or apprehension, he could not tell.

Mike gave him a cryptic, intelligent smile. “Oh yes. You’ve been asleep for five days.”

“Five days?” he breathed.

“It’s not like you missed anything. Well, you missed the funeral and winter finally arrived…actually a lot has happened in five days, but nothing you won’t accustom to.”

Erwin opened his eyes and Mike was still smiling. “What’s that expression for?”

Mike rocked from his heels to his toes. “Levi’s just been delightful.”

Levi.

Erwin’s brows scrunched together. There was something he needed to remember, something he’d forgotten that had to do with Levi…but now wasn’t the time. “What’s happened with Levi?”

Mike whistled innocently as if considering how much to tell Erwin. “Other than charging over the wall to save you, he’s been a downright unbearable acting-commander.”

Blue eyes widened. “Acting-commander?”

Mike nodded like he found this turn of events hilarious. “A bit of a self-promoted position. The recruits are terrified of him. He has them cleaning from sunrise to sunset. He and Shadis had the death certificates and funeral arrangements completed the very next day after we returned, and your promotion was finalized the following evening. He’s also taken to teaching flight formations as of yesterday. He’s actually an amazing teacher. Once the Garrison gossips about him, we should have more funds and volunteers joining the Corps.”

Erwin listened as intently as his pounding skull could take. Levi took over the Corps? Shadis was not a push over by any means, which made Erwin believe that Levi was either extraordinary at being a leader or he really did terrify everyone.

“Pixis is smitten,” Mike continued. “He’s as odd as Hange but no one really crosses him. Levi told the man to get his pearly head over here, and when he did, he threatened him to his face. Pixis must have laughed for thirty minutes. When he finally stopped laughing, he agreed with everything Levi told him: how his men needed to get in line and were too cowardly to do their jobs of clearing the gates. The watchers on the wall have been demoted, replaced, and the gate has been cleared ever since even though no expeditions are scheduled.”

Erwin blinked, unable to process this information fully. “Where is Levi now?”

“With Hange in the infirmary, making sure she washes her entire arms before checking on the survivors. Don’t worry, Commander, you’re barely holding your eyes open. All is as well as it can be.”

Erwin’s head swam with Mike’s words and his imaginary images of Levi teaching, cleaning, Levi soaking wet and flying over his head, blocking Erwin from the titan’s mouth, Levi flying like a cyclone and taking down more titans than he’d ever seen…before fainting into his pillow.

 

“Hey blondie.”

Erwin’s eyes opened to find Hange’s big brown ones an inch from his. “You awake?”

“That’s not appropriate,” he murmured. At least this close he knew she’d bathed recently…he knew whom to thank for that.

He grimaced as a blinding light was shined right into his pupils. “I have to check on the state of your concussion. Do you feel like vomiting?”

“He will with you so close to him.”

Erwin’s eyes opened and blinked rapidly, trying to clear the imprinted spot on his retinas so he could see Levi standing off to the side. Erwin watched his hand shove his black tresses to one side self-consciously.

“Levi…thank you.”

“Whatever.”

“No, I mean it.”

“So do I. Can you stand yet? I’m tired of taking care of brats.”

Hange shook her head chidingly. “You two need to kiss and make up already, literally and figuratively, because the short stack is annoying when he’s in charge.”

“Fuck you.”

She shrugged, not insulted in the least. “How are you feeling?”

The room was not moving of its own accord and his headache was gone. “Better. How long have I been asleep?”

“After Mike spoke with you? Just two days. If you want, a hot bath is waiting in your tub.”

He audibly sighed with relief. “Good, I need it. Thank you, Hange. Am I allowed off the bed?”

She grinned. “Aye, Commander.”

She had a pip in her step as she left the room with Levi following—

“Levi. Stay.”

Levi’s eyes looked bluish-grey when they widened, watching Erwin traverse the room to the bathroom. “What?”

“You need to make sure I don’t faint and drown. Get in here.”

Erwin half-expected Levi to colorfully refuse and leave, but Levi did the exact opposite. Treading lightly over the carpet to the tile of the bathroom, he silently stood behind the head of the tub. Erwin was not shy about removing his clothes—technically they had both seen each other naked already even if that had been during a more innocent time. As he lifted his shirt to pull over his head, though, his shoulder screamed with pain.

“Your shoulder was dislocated,” Levi explained.

“I don’t remember that,” Erwin huffed, catching his breath as the pain ebbed away. He began unbuttoning the pajama shirt in which someone had dressed him instead.

“You’ll feel two ribs broken eventually,” Levi narrated behind him, obligingly taking the garment off Erwin’s shoulders to ease his movement.

His pants dropped easily enough from his hips, and he stepped gingerly into the steaming water. He felt Levi standing behind him even if he did not make a sound. Erwin leaned against the copper tub contently, letting the unyielding heat seep away his aches and stiffness. When he leaned forward to wet his face and hair, his broken ribs announced themselves. “Ah, there they are.”

Levi said nothing, and Erwin cupped water over his head, feeling it slither down his neck and between his shoulder blades. There was a basket hanging over the edge of the tub, but his shampoo wasn’t there. His blue eyes lifted to watch Levi cross the room to the shelf above the sink, retrieving his shampoo and handing it to him.

A smile tugged on Erwin’s lips at the irony. “Thank you,” he said simply, and spun the cap off. He relished the suds between his fingers and the weightless feeling of grease and sweat leaving his hair. The smell in his nose was now his shampoo and soap instead of his stagnant odor.

His ribs and shoulder disagreed with his desire to clean his back. “Levi…would you help me?”

For a long moment Erwin waited, and then Levi’s slim hand and rolled up sleeve entered his vision, plucking the bar of soap out of his hand. He leaned forward to accommodate the soap moving in circles across his skin. Erwin heard a washcloth being wrung out before it scrubbed over his shoulders, nape, and down his shoulder blades and ribcage. Suddenly, Erwin felt incredibly vulnerable in a bathroom alone with Levi.

“You could do whatever you wanted to me right now,” he mused aloud.

“Don’t be a pervert,” Levi countered bluntly.

“I meant that you could kill me if you wanted to.”

The cloth paused on Erwin’s back, and then continued. “I won’t kill a man in his bath.”

He chuckled. “That is a comfort.”

“A carriage is ready to take you to Sina tomorrow evening or the morning after if you want it.”

Erwin raised a brow at the abrupt subject change but nodded. “The evening will be fine.”

Levi’s ministrations began to crawl over Erwin’s shoulder and down his arm, bringing Levi into view. He hadn’t even asked Levi to go this far, but the man flipped Erwin’s forearm over, cleaning from his pit to his fingertips without a word. It was nice; Erwin could not recall ever being taken care of in this way, or to this extent. Levi did his other arm as well, taking care to be gently with his ribs and shoulder.

The time it took gave Erwin the leisure to really look at Levi, without the Underground filth, or hair in the way, or even hatred marring his expression. He had a nice, angular jaw that was strong but not overbearing. His lips were not pouty like they had been when he was growing, but they were full and quite lovely. Erwin liked how his straight nose sloped upward on the end, ever so slightly. It gave him a boyish quality between those striking, elderly grey eyes.

“You’re beautiful, Levi…I think I told you that once before, but you’re even more so now.”

Levi froze, eyes locked on the hand he was washing instead of meeting Erwin’s gaze. He found a small brush in the basket and started cleaning underneath the nails. “Don’t say shit like that.”

“It’s not shit if it’s true,” Erwin defended lightly. “You’ve grown into a very handsome man…and I’m sorry about this.” The pad of his pinkie traced the fading red line across Levi’s neck. “I never wanted to hurt you.”

Levi leaned back, away from his touch. “It doesn’t matter.”

Erwin’s chin jerked slightly, casting his customary piercing glare at Levi even if his eyes didn’t rise to meet it. “Yes it does…although I suppose you’re right. Even when you were small, you were far stronger than you looked.”

“I’ll always be small compared to you, dumb ass,” Levi said quietly. “Get used to it.”

Erwin’s eyes widened slightly, considering how much Levi might be saying behind those words. He chose not to linger on the subject and asked, “What prompted you to become acting-commander?”

Levi answered blandly, “The old man is retired, Mike is training whoever isn’t dead, and Hange is healing whoever is dying. This place was a mess. So I cleaned it up.”

Something Nile had said prickled at Erwin’s memory, but he didn’t want to think of Nile right now. “Well I’m grateful to you. I know the others are as well.”

Levi was cleaning his other set of fingernails intently. Erwin’s eyes wandered over his face again before dropping to his lips. What would Levi do if Erwin were to kiss him right now? To remove his fingers from Levi’s grasp and curl them behind his neck to pull him against the edge of the tub and Erwin’s mouth? Erwin found himself not only lingering on the idea, but _wanting_ to kiss him.

Levi stood and the Erwin swallowed thickly, the moment past. He inhaled the wave of scent that followed Levi and felt himself leaning toward it. Levi smelled softly of fresh linens with a hint of leather from his boots, but something else that was distinctly warmer, purely Levi.

Erwin pressed his back to the wall of the tub, shaking his head and his reverie away. He did not regret refusing Levi’s initial approaches; he’d been vulnerable and Erwin still refused to have taken advantage of him. He could have handled Levi’s heat better, but what bothered him now was just how good Levi had always smelled, and the sudden freedom Erwin had to enjoy it. As a grown man, Erwin was confident in Levi’s decisions, whether he said no or yes.

And he wanted Levi to say yes.

Erwin stood from the bath and pulled a towel from the rack mounted on the wall. He tied it around his hips before grasping another to dry his torso and hair. He heard Levi drain the tub and when he finished with his hair, Erwin turned to find a toothbrush ready with paste on the sink. Levi leaned against the doorframe while Erwin lavished each tooth and brushed over his tongue. His pajamas had already been removed to the laundry basket.

“Is there anything I need to do before the carriage tomorrow?” he asked while he opened his drawers to pick clothes.

“The old man wants to see you, but he’s riding with you for the ceremony so he said that can wait. Pixis will be in Sina, waiting to arrange a meeting with you.”

Erwin rather looked forward to speaking with Commander Pixis about recent events. He glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. “Dinner is in an hour. I’d prefer to look presentable to those attending. I’ll visit the infirmary beforehand, as well.”

With that, Levi came up behind him and helped him shrug into his shirt. Erwin managed everything else himself and chose to be more casual, leaving his uniform jacket in the room.

Levi walked ahead of him and went to speak with Hange, who waved from the other side of the infirmary. The soldiers who were awake eagerly tried to salute Levi in passing, and held it for Erwin, who let them at ease.

“There is no need to salute if you’re bedridden,” he teased warmly to them.

“With all due respect, Commander,” Gunther said, his broken arm in a sling as he sat against his headboard. “You stayed outside of the gate with us.”

Erwin shook his head humbly. “I was late in hearing the bells.”

Gunther surprised him by scoffing, “The bells are meant to be heard from wall to wall. You didn’t run. You stayed with us.”

Erwin did not want to argue this, especially when he saw the light of hope and respect in the eyes of the injured. Such little things helped people heal, so he smiled and saluted them in return.

But Erwin wasn’t prepared to enter the dining hall. He was halfway to the pile of trays when something in his peripheral vision moved, and he glanced to see someone saluting. He pivoted on the balls of his feet, scanning the room and finding most of its occupants standing, arms poised over their hearts.

His adams apple bobbed and his head turned to see Eld standing beside him with his hand outstretched. Erwin took it, shaking back. “That was a hell of battle,” Eld commented, “but you have the guts of a leader. We’re glad they weren’t torn out of you.”

Erwin laughed but it caught in his throat. “Thank you, Eld…I’m sorry I’ve forced you here.”

The man shrugged, his expression solemn. “It smells better than the Underground and is less corrupt than the Military Police. I’ll follow you, Erwin Smith. If I don’t see you before you leave, safe travels, Commander.”

Erwin gave a brief speech about the brave men and women lost and how appreciated and victorious everyone’s efforts were despite their losses. Ultimately it was a gallant way to make them at ease. He was grateful for their gesture, but by the end of the speech and his meal, he was equally as grateful to return to his bed.

 

“Figures. Short stack has already ironed your dress uniform,” Hange smiled with a shake of her head. Erwin took the raiment from her and neatly folded it into his trunk. Mike entered the room, then, with a parcel of food for the trip.

“They’ll likely want you in meetings and ceremonies as soon as you arrive,” he narrated. Erwin set the package beside his trunk, intending to keep it with him inside the carriage.

“Thank you, Mike. If you could just tell the driver I’ll be down in a few minutes. All I need now are my…”

He looked through his trunk to make sure he hadn’t packed them yet, and then stood to go to his closet as the door opened again. Levi entered with his dress boots, a tin of boot black, and a rag he’d obviously been using to polish them. He dropped them squarely in the trunk where Erwin had reserved a space for them, along with the tin. Levi didn’t meet his eyes, instead using the clean parts of the cloth to scrub polish from his fingers.

Erwin felt Hange’s eyes linger between the two men before she proclaimed a bit too perkily, “I’ll just carry this down to the carriage. Not like I need a short stack’s help anyways.”

The cloth smacked Hange in the face as she hoisted the trunk in her arms, carrying it easily out the door.

“Are you waiting to use the tub?” Erwin asked when the door had closed behind her.

“Yeah,” Levi answered tersely, crossing the room to hang his jacket in the bathroom.

“I’d prefer to have you and the others coming with me,” Erwin confided, standing in the doorway. “The capital is boring without friends…and the occasion should be celebrated with the people who helped me earn it.”

“Mike snuck a cake in that box,” Levi scoffed while gesturing to the parcel. “What more do you want?”

“Hmph,” Erwin hummed, stepping further into the room. “Quite a bit, actually.”

“Tfft, greedy bastard,” Levi returned quietly.

Erwin chuckled deep in his chest, his feet still moving forward. “You’re not wrong.”

Levi turned, eyeing the blonde and realizing how much closer he’d come. “You’re going to be late for your ride.”

Erwin shrugged his good shoulder. “It leaves when I’m in it, not before. Will you share some of the leadership with Mike while I’m gone?”

He noticed Levi had undone some of his shirt buttons while his back was turned. The man’s collarbone was just as elegant and strong as the rest of him.

“If he stops sniffing the recruits long enough to be of use,” he answered.

That reminded Erwin of a train of thought he'd once had... “You know…at this rate you will become a squad leader in no time. You’ve taken on the responsibilities of a Captain as it is. All you need is a few more expeditions for protocol’s sake.”

Levi looked him square in the eyes. “I told you. I’m here to do what I do best. Fuck protocol.”

And just like that, Erwin snapped.

His arms reached and grasped Levi’s nape, tugging him toward Erwin’s eager mouth. He knew this wasn’t appropriate, between a captain and soldier, or between a commander and his squad leader or captain, but Erwin needed to kiss Levi. The irrepressible need to feel those lips and taste some part of Levi was swimming through is veins, so _fuck protocol._

Levi stiffened against Erwin’s sudden advance, humming a brief exclamation. But Erwin’s hands cradled his head, tilting him to kiss properly, and when Erwin opened his eyes, Levi’s were sliding closed.

Erwin pulled a little further, and Levi’s body rippled forward, softly leaning into Erwin’s body and up for the kiss. His large hand moved from Levi’s neck down his back, and felt his spine arch while Erwin’s body bowed to meet his. Levi's hands clutched at Erwin's shirt and jacket. When Erwin’s arm circled around Levi’s waist, he realized he was almost entirely supporting Levi’s weight as the smaller man stood on his toes.

Erwin brought his other arm down and scooped Levi off his feet. He mewled with surprise as his body was finally flush against Erwin’s, his ankles naturally crossing behind the larger man’s pelvis. Erwin felt Levi’s hands grasp his head, Levi’s fingers tangling in his hair, and Erwin was intoxicated by the sensation. He broke from Levi between each kiss, the two of them gasping for air before Erwin’s lips pushed at Levi’s, licking the seam and slipping inside his mouth.

Levi trembled, his body growing hot as his arms fell behind Erwin’s neck, desperately holding onto his elbows to secure his body to Erwin’s. He felt his spine against the wall but he didn’t care while Erwin’s tongue was in his mouth, while his teeth nipped at Levi’s swollen lips—

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Levi gasped so loudly his voice broke through. He clapped a hand over his mouth as Mike called through the bedroom door, “Hey Smith, are you being promoted or what? The carriage can’t wait forever. Shadis already left without you.”

For a strenuous minute, neither Erwin nor Levi moved, until finally Erwin acknowledged, “He’s right…I should go.”

But he leaned in again, resting his forehead against Levi’s as his eyes gazed hungrily at Levi’s mouth. He knew Levi could feel his erection straining his trousers, and he could see Levi’s own poised between them.

Levi’s legs uncrossed behind him and Erwin growled low in his chest. “I should have chosen tomorrow morning,” he complained darkly as he set Levi on his feet.

The man stood but leaned back against the wall for support, not meeting Erwin’s gaze. The blonde had half a mind to just drag Levi down to the carriage with him, but he couldn’t have scandalous rumors starting up when he hadn’t even been sworn in yet.

All Erwin could say was, “Enjoy the bath,” before he retrieved his parcel of food, rearranged the situation in his groin, and marched out the door. It wasn’t until he was swaying in the carriage that he realized how far gone Levi must have been to not hear Mike stomping his way to Erwin’s door.

Erwin grinned rather cheekily in the darkness of his carriage.


	14. Winter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erwin is snowed in inside the capital and must work through scheming aristocrats and boredom during his prolonged stay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy reading :)

The blue stone was cold even through the fabric of his shirt. Shadis’ eyes met Erwin’s as he placed the bolo tie around the new Commander’s neck. He’d repeated the vows spoken by the Commander-in-Chief, Darius Zackly, and now that the braided, leather cord was around his neck, Erwin heard applause throughout the chamber.

The ceremony acted as an introduction to Commander Smith but also as a farewell to Commander Shadis. Normally there was not a living commander to pass on the tie and responsibility personally, so this occasion was twice as long. This did not overly perturb Erwin; Shadis deserved the recognition, both for the progress made under his leadership as well as being dumb lucky enough to live so long.

Nonetheless, Erwin caught himself peeking glances around the room, scanning the auditorium for familiar faces. He found some, but they were investors, powerful merchants, Wallists, other military ranks, etc. There wasn’t a woman with frizzy auburn hair with glasses or a dark blonde with a trimmed scruff. There wasn’t a petite man with coal-dark hair and storm grey eyes.

A man with a salted mustache entered his field of vision and Erwin realized the ceremony was over. Commander Pixis was the first to approach him with congratulations.

“Didn’t shatter a good fantasy, did I?” Pixis greeted while shaking Erwin’s hand.

“No, no, I’m just ready for the banquet,” he chuckled congenially. “I owe you immense gratitude for all you’ve done for the Corps during my recovery.”

“You owe me nothing,” Pixis scoffed, exchanging Erwin’s hand for the flask in his interior pocket. “Although if that Levi ever wants a reassignment, you better send him my way. The Garrison could use a hard ball like him.”

Both glowing pride and seething jealousy raged within Erwin, but he smiled through it and said, “I am glad you weren’t threatened by his forward behavior. I assure you, though, that if it ever comes between wings or roses, Levi will always choose wings.”

Commander’s Pixis’ eyebrows rose curiously, and Erwin dreaded his jab had been too much. Then, Pixis guffawed in his face. “I like a man who’s proud of his soldiers. I tell mine when they’re fools often enough but if we don’t tell them when they do a bloody thing right, they won’t know how to do it again. How long are you in the capital, Smith?”

Exhaling with relief, Erwin said, “I’d like to return to the Corps as soon as possible. I expect to return the day after tomorrow.”

Pixis laughed again but it faded quickly. He leaned forward and his tone quieted as if to convey in confidence, “I hate to tell you, but you should plan to be here for much longer than that. All of these people are going to pick you apart as quickly as they can to get a reading on what type of man you are. I’d like to schedule a meeting with you before then. How’s dinner at seven?”

When he peered around, Erwin knew the Garrison Commander was right. Most people were lingering to mingle with old comrades, business partners, wishing Shadis a happy retirement, but they also stole apparent glances at Erwin, patiently but eagerly waiting for Pixis to finish their discussion. Erwin was not surprised by the fact that conniving individuals would seek him out, but he was confident he could maneuver around them to get back to what really mattered.

Hange’s research and observations would result in prototypes that would need to be tested and approved before future expeditions; recruits would need to be brought in and trained specially now that Levi’s talents were available for lesson and observation. Levi’s soft hair and warm scent nuzzling against Erwin’s chin and neck. Having someone to hold in the darkest hour of night and keep the bed warm…

Erwin realized Pixis was awaiting his answer. “Yes, seven will do fine. You pick the place.”

“I’ll pick the one with the best food but the most expensive drink,” the man warned cheerily before striding away with his assistant. Erwin swallowed and shook his head lightly, appearing to others as if he was merely shaking his hair off his face. He needed to get his priorities in line. The Corps came first. Levi was a part of that now, but Erwin’s desires for him had to be last on the list. Levi and Mike working together to teach recruits came first; Levi spreading his legs on Erwin’s bed with Mike firmly locked out of the room came second.

“It’s snowing!” someone called, and Erwin was amused by how childlike his admirers became. Several people even ran to the windows to see the globs of flakes swirling toward the ground. Mike had told Erwin that winter had finally arrived before he left, and he had traveled over slushy puddles and patches of snow, but it seemed the weather was finally caught up.

When fascination over annual weather died down, they resumed their interrogation and congratulations of Commander Smith, as he’d anticipated.

 

What Erwin was not prepared for, was being snowed in by sundown.

He ducked under the eaves of the restaurant Pixis had chosen, his golden hair flecked with sparkling snow. It was even piled in little hillocks on his shoulders before he shook his coat out. Pixis greeted him with a brandy as soon as his coat was on a peg by the fire.

“It’s almost like those bastards planned it,” he chuckled, resuming his seat at the small mahogany table. The restaurant was classy yet cozy, with warm colors for the design like dark wooded furniture, red and malbec carpets and curtains. Pixis had reserved a table in the back corner, far enough away for privacy but close enough to the fire and open area to be seen by the public. Pixis was nothing if not practical, and the man knew how useful simply being seen could be.

Erwin sipped his beverage gratefully, feeling warmth spread down his throat and fill his belly. Pixis handed him the single-paged menu and Erwin suspected the man was either on a liquid diet or frequented this place often enough to have the menu memorized.

“How’s the cranberry lamb?” he ventured.

“You’ll want the blue cheese filet or the garlic chicken. The cook snacks on the lamb while he waits for the accompanying potatoes to fry. You pay for six chops but only get five.”

Erwin smiled and proceeded with the steak. Pixis was just as comfortable drinking from a glass as he was from a flask, although he slouched slightly in his chair, knees wide beneath the table.

“Is this evening as necessary for you as it is for me?” Erwin jibed, holding his glass out for the passing waitress to refill. He ignored her lingering stare as he listened to Pixis’ answer.

A smile graced the man’s lips but it did not reach his eyes. “You’re too young to feel as jaded as me, but you are not wrong. This pendant is a noose around my neck that the bureaucrats keep trying to tighten. Recruits aren’t what they used to be. They’re children with fear in their eyes or delusional bravado. Everyone wants to join the Police for the corrupt spoils instead of actually making a difference, and those who do can’t get the money for scraps of bread let alone adequate equipment.”

Erwin was taken aback by Pixis profuse confession, and said as much. “I didn’t think the Garrison was starving for funds.”

Pixis laughed more merrily this time. “Not any more than anyone else is, but that’s just it. We’re all starving equally, even if our… _loyal investors_ are too busy polishing their goblets to notice. Things have to change.”

Erwin knew this conversation would be considered blasphemous and even treasonous depending on who heard it, but he could not agree more. “People aren’t meant to live behind walls.”

“If I could reverse time, I would slap the cowards who thought building the walls was a clever idea,” Pixis stated, and Erwin’s eyes widened slightly. The man had certainly been drinking before he’d arrived. “But I have been charged with their upkeep. As skittish as the cowards' posterity is, I care for the runts. It’s your job to figure out what’s happening outside the walls. What is your plan, Smith?”

Erwin couldn’t help but laugh; he had no reason to fear if Pixis was threatened by Levi’s attitude, and he was even grateful for the direct question. The other meetings he would be subjected to during his entrapment here would not go as smoothly. After this night, he would have to read between the lines, flatter ungrateful moneybags, and guess truths hidden by lies.

“I suppose you would have me get humanity out from behind our walls?”

“Human lives are short,” Pixis declined, “I have faith in you but until I see what you can do as Commander, I doubt much will change in our life times. I want to know that things will be all right when I’m gone.”

“That is where you and I disagree,” Erwin declared quietly to not be overheard. “I don’t plan to leave drafts and groundwork for someone else to hopefully free humanity. I plan to do it in my life time, as short or as long as it proves to be.”

Erwin had never witnessed anyone silence Pixis, but he seemed to have done it. The man’s uniform roses matched the red of his wine as he stared evenly back at Erwin, saying nothing. He was mute for so long that their food arrived, but Erwin waited for Pixis to speak before he so much as touched his silverware.

When Pixis finally spoke, he said, “Then you’re willing to kill humanity in order to save it?”

The answer was on Erwin’s tongue before he thought through Pixis’ question. He tumbled the words over and over in his mind but he returned to his initial response in the end: “Even winter must fall before spring can rise.”

The wine in Pixis’ glass was steady as he fell into another spell of quietude. Abruptly, he laughed, and the spell was gone. “I never thought a poet would lead humanity’s salvation. Let’s eat before our food gets cold. Your steak won’t become the bull if we wait long enough.”

It was not a blessing, but it was not condemnation, either, and Erwin could be grateful for that much. Pixis was a useful ally, and his unordinary intellect would be crucial later on, just as Nile’s dysfunctional honor was making strides now.

After Pixis’ company and drunken sense of humor, Erwin trudged his way back to his lodgings. The building was structured for officers and council meetings, which meant that Shadis and Erwin had an entire floor to themselves. It consisted of their bedrooms and individual bathrooms, a large meeting room, parlor, and two offices. The space allotment meant that their bedrooms were obscenely massive, but it also allowed for a proportionately large bed. Erwin dropped heavily on the mattress as soon as his coat, jacket, and boots were off. His head swam lethargically from alcohol but it was a warm, pleasant dizziness. He was looking forward to spreading out his large body on the bed that could easily sleep four.

A light rhythm on the door drew his attention and he rose into a sitting position to see Shadis entering in a similar state of casual undress. “Was dinner pleasant?” he smiled.

Erwin chuckled, scrubbing a hand over his face. He could feel the blush in his cheeks. “I didn’t even bother trying to keep up with that man.”

“Wise,” Shadis approved. “Take the tie off and join me for a nightcap.”

Erwin tossed the bolo tie and his title of Commander over the bedpost and raked a hand through his hair. Shadis held the door open to the parlor, where a fire was crackling in the grate and flickering orange and crimson light in the amber, garnet, and white fluids in the drink cabinet. He leaned his shoulder against the window frame, observing the bluish flakes outside.

“It’s still snowing.”

He accepted the snifter of almond liquor as Shadis replied, “I smelled it when we pulled into Sina. You can always smell winter’s arrival.”

Erwin sipped the amber sweetness, and tasted the flavor evolve as it warmed on his tongue. “You sound like Mike.”

Shadis chuckled, taking a seat by the fire. “It’s something my wife says. She loves the smell of winter.”

Erwin startled. “Says? Your wife lives?”

Shadis gave him a knowing look. “I am a private man but that doesn’t mean my relations are deceased. My wife is very much alive, and quite ecstatic about my retirement.”

“My apologies,” Erwin uttered, joining him by the fire. “I just…you never mentioned her.”

“Yes I did,” Shadis corrected. “Think on it. I’m curious how clever you are drunk.”

Erwin theatrically rolled his eyes and lightly sniffed his nightcap as he pondered it… The glass dropped from his mouth. “Your wife is a kemon.”

Shadis smiled. Erwin sighed and shook his head with a tired smile. “Of course.”

“I can’t let everything be easy for you. You would get dull,” Shadis teased.

“Will I ever meet her?” Erwin wondered.

“Perhaps,” Shadis nodded. “She’s rather like Levi: antisocial to a fault but very direct if she likes you.”

“Levi…” Erwin exclaimed, looking around as if he might find him somewhere. “He and the others will be wondering about me. The snow might not have hit them yet.”

Shadis gestured at the writing table across the room, flanked by loaded bookshelves. “There’s writing utensils and envelopes in the drawers. I sent a letter to my wife earlier; I suggest you get yours out before you get in bed, and pay the horseman dearly if you want your letter to be delivered in this weather.”

Erwin took the advise to heart and traversed the room. Setting his glass down, he found paper and dipped the fountain pen in the inkwell. He addressed the envelope to Mike but wrote:

_Dear Mike and Hange,_  
I am delayed here until the weather lets up. Tell Levi I am sorry for leaving him with the duties he’s so profoundly volunteered for, but while I am here I intend to get funding for Hange’s laboratory equipment and prototypes as well as training materials for Mike and Levi to use with the recruits. If you have problems, send a rider to me but try to keep them to pure necessities since it will take a great deal of money to convince riders to travel through a meter of snow.  
All the best,  
Erwin 

Shadis rang a bell for a carrier to collect the letter and payment. When Erwin returned to the seat at the fire, he found his eyelids more interested in closing than his palette wanted the nightcap. Shadis noticed and dismissed, “Get some sleep, son. You’ll need it for what’s coming since the snow’s here.”

Erwin thanked him and had enough stamina to brush his teeth before once more collapsing on the bed.

 

A week passed.

Erwin found himself needing nightcaps with Shadis just to unwind after a day of pompous aristocrats, greedy merchants, and obnoxious government officials. He was half inclined to arrange another dinner with Pixis just to break the monotony.

Shadis had a whiskey mixed with ginger water waiting for him when he shook off his coat. He drank half of it before he tasted how much whiskey was behind the sweetness.

 _Cough._ “Thank,” _cough,_ “you.”

He blinked back tears while Shadis laughed. “Rough day?”

Erwin shuddered but not from alcohol. “I know more about the trending colognes, nose powders, and coat tails than I ever cared to know.”

“Was your agony worth any of it?” Shadis wondered, adding more water to top off his drink.

Erwin sipped more contently. “Three investors are signed and already contributing to winter’s rations. Another wants to see our facilities and work with the recruits once spring arrives.”

“Three, though,” Shadis commended. “I’ve had to take three weeks to convince funding, let alone complete the paperwork. You’re already better at this than I was.”

“But expect my hair to turn silver faster than yours.”

He plopped himself in the chair opposite Shadis and sipped his beverage, adamantly discussing topics other than investors or aristocratic interests. When Erwin placed his glass on the table for the housing staff to clean, Shadis inquired, “What meetings have you taken tomorrow?”

“A luncheon and tea, but don’t expect to find me at breakfast.”

Shadis smiled. “Enjoy your late morning.”

Erwin was removing clothes on his way to his room, so by the time he shut the door behind him, he dropped a pile that consisted of his boots, trousers, jacket, and he was unbuttoning his shirt when the door flew open behind him. Erwin blinked and blinked again, unable to believe that Levi was glaring at him and throwing a crumpled piece of paper in his face.

“The fuck is this?” he demanded.

Erwin had to wait until the letter stilled so he could make out his own handwriting. “The letter I sent you?” he replied innocently.

Levi slammed the door. “It wasn’t sent to me. It was sent to Mike. You even mention Hange directly. If you had something to say to me you should have written it to me. Did you think I’m illiterate or something?”

To be honest, Erwin didn’t know whether Levi could read or not, but he had been far from sober when he’d written the letter and could not say what had been going through his mind at the time. Either way, he did not get a chance to answer because Levi opened the letter and cited, “And what’s this: ‘All the best’? _All the best?_ If you ever write a letter to me, you better not fucking end it with _‘All the best’—”_

As he spoke, it slammed into Erwin that he was really here. Levi’s cheeks were flushed from the cold and snow was scattered on his coat and thighs as if he’d just come off horseback. There were even snowflakes on his eyelashes, obstinately refusing to melt.

Erwin reached for Levi’s nape, using his thumbs to push Levi’s chin up and capturing his lips so forcefully that Levi startled back a step.

“Erw—” he gasped, but Erwin pushed his lips further apart and licked across his bottom lip. Levi hummed deep in his chest as Erwin took control of his mouth, tasting and licking with each kiss until Levi’s back was against the door and his neck was craned, his body flush with Erwin’s. The blonde cradled his head to support the strain while his other arm was around Levi’s shoulders, locking him close.

“Y-You’ve been drinking,” Levi scolded breathlessly.

“Yes,” Erwin replied, equally out of breath as he trailed kisses across Levi’s jaw and began leaving open-mouthed smooches on his neck. Erwin smiled as he felt the cold vanish from his skin patch by patch, with each kiss; he ventured a nip under Levi’s ear, and Erwin felt the man’s body bow against him. “You’re sensitive, Levi,” he purred.

“Erwin…bastard,” he tried to chastise. “Stop. You’ll induce my heat.”

At the mention of heat, Erwin only wanted more of it, and he picked Levi right off the floor, carrying him to the bed while yanking his shirt where it was tucked in his trousers. With one hand he pulled off one of Levi’s boots while he finished unbuttoning his shirt. Tossing it and both boots to the floor, Erwin worked at Levi’s trousers. He felt a smile curve his lips when he observed Levi’s eyes widen and lips part as he stared at Erwin’s bare torso.

For a small man, Levi’s legs were long as Erwin pulled off his underwear and trousers in one pull. Blue eyes hungrily fell on the freed erection, but when he bowed over it, Levi’s knees jerked closed and his hands reached for Erwin’s shoulders. In the back of his mind, Erwin acknowledged that this was probably Levi’s first time, so he let the man be shy and instead began to kiss up his stomach as he undid the buttons.

“Erwin…” he whined as kisses were licked up his sternum. “I-I can’t do this again.”

Erwin paused and raised himself to examine the man beneath him. Levi’s cheeks were blushing deeply, as well as his throat, but also his chest as it heaved with his breaths. His sleek, dark brows were creased in concern and growing panic as he fell into heat not unlike when he was in puberty.

Erwin lowered slowly so as to not shock Levi, and planted soft, almost feather light kisses on his lips. He felt Levi tremble slightly with each one. Reaching a hand between them, Erwin shoved his underwear down and gently took Levi’s wrist to lead his hand to his hard and waiting cock. Levi startled when he felt the dense weight of it in his hand.

“I won’t ever put you through that again. The only one who will say no this time is you, and I will honor that if that is what you choose. But feel what you do to me…”

He carefully pushed his hips forward, sliding his cock through Levi’s hand. Erwin gasped when his grip instinctively tightened around him, and he thrust again. His forehead touched Levi’s, whose eyes were staring dumbfounded at what he and Erwin were doing.

“Oh god…do you have, um,” he blinked to clear his thoughts, “lube? Please tell me you have it.”

Erwin lithely reached backward for the bedside drawer and pulled out an unopened bottle of peppermint scented oil. “I had time to spare, and I’d hoped…”

But Levi reared up, wrapping his arms and legs around Erwin to pull him back down and attached his mouth to Erwin’s neck. Levi sucked and kissed up the vein to the underside of his chin, and nipped his way back down, trailing all the way to Erwin’s shoulder.

“I’m so fucking hungry for you,” he breathed.

Erwin’s mind reeled, but he kept it in check. Levi needed time, and he was still wearing his shirt, jacket, and coat after all.

“Come here,” he directed, “sit on my lap.”

Levi didn’t seem to particularly care how much he was still wearing as he obediently straddled Erwin’s thighs, but he let Erwin push the garments off his shoulders and toss them beside the bed. Levi took a moment to hastily jerk the underwear from Erwin’s long, muscular legs before settled down again.

Their mouths connected, and Erwin felt heat bloom up his own throat with the feel of Levi’s bare skin on his chest, his thighs, and their cocks and balls pressed together. They kissed for a long time, Levi writhing in his arms, seeking friction between them. Erwin ended their kiss for air and to say, “Maybe we should take it slow the first round.”

“No,” Levi refused, his eyes heavily hooded with wanting. “I want you inside me. I’ve waited too fucking long to not be fucked out of my mind by you.”

A groggy smile formed on Erwin’s face. “I’m half out of mine already.”

“Stop wasting time,” he scolded. “Where’s that bottle?”

Erwin unscrewed the cap and upended it over his palm. He let the slick droplets fall between them to slide over their erections as he readied his fingers. The light mint smell wafted between them, eliminating the stale, hyper clean odor of the room. Erwin’s lips sealed on Levi’s neck again, his fingers sliding down the crevasse and over Levi’s opening.

Levi sighed a groan and his forehead fell onto Erwin’s shoulder as his hole was massaged. Starting with his pinkie, Erwin delicately entered him, pushing in and withdrawing so lube could slick Levi’s opening. Erwin’s teeth grazed the curve of his ear and Levi shivered, clenching slightly around the finger that was now knuckle-deep. It lightly wriggled inside him, causing his body to ripple with each movement.

“Are you in pain?” Erwin asked.

Levi’s head shook against his shoulder. “No. More.”

Erwin graduated to his forefinger, slowly entering and stretching Levi until he was knuckle-deep again. He held his finger in, and swirled it around until he found the spot—

“Ngh!” Levi reacted, nails biting into Erwin’s flesh. Erwin kissed his hairline, leaving kisses behind his ear as he continued massaging the spot.

Levi’s breathing quickened and Erwin murmured, “I need you to relax. I can’t enter you without hurting you when you’re this tight.”

He received no response, but Erwin knew how to get Levi to relax, even if it might send him running back to headquarters for violating a sensitive part of him. “Levi, do you trust me?”

Levi huffed a breath like he used to when he was annoyed. “Your finger is up my ass, what do you think?”

Erwin kissed his temple and began massaging the base of his neck. After a minute of working the tense muscle, he felt the muscle as well as Levi’s opening relax somewhat. Erwin’s fingers gently kneaded the flesh of his scalp, taking his time as he moved upwards. Levi’s hair fell forward and revealed the scarred crescents of skin. Erwin’s fingers stretched to work the delicate muscles behind both crescents, and Levi almost immediately slouched against him.

The hand on his scalp kept massaging circles while the other slipped another finger inside. The difference now that Levi was quickly becoming jelly in his hands allowed Erwin to finish stretching him and carefully lean forward to lower him onto his back. Levi mewled weakly when Erwin gripped the backs of his thighs.

“You like that?” he observed huskily, squeezing again so Levi’s head fell back with a sigh. He kneaded the muscle briefly, promising himself to give Levi a full massage later on.

He pushed Levi’s legs up so his knees hooked over Erwin’s elbows and his pelvis lifted off the bed. The bottle reopened so lube could cover Erwin’s length before his tip nuzzled Levi’s opening. Above him, Erwin was eye to eye with Levi, who opened his lust-filled eyes to hold Erwin’s intent gaze.

Erwin took a moment to reach a hand forward to hold the side of Levi’s face. His chest was rosy with his heat and heaving with every inhalation. Erwin would have thought Levi was half asleep or suffering from heat exhaustion if he didn’t know better, how hooded Levi's eyes were. “Are you still with me, love?”

Erwin’s heart swelled at how Levi reacted to the endearment, his swollen lips parting more and his dewy eyes shining. He swallowed and nodded his head. That was all Erwin needed.

He pushed the head of his cock in, but waited for Levi to accustom to the stretch. He marveled at the V muscles in Levi’s hips flexing, and carefully pushed further. His tip pressed directly into Levi’s soft prostate, and he cried out as his lower back arched upward, incidentally pushing him all the way against Erwin’s hilt.

“Levi…talk to me,” Erwin insisted raggedly. “How do you feel?”

“You’re not done,” he countered impatiently. “Ask me later.”

So Erwin gradually pulled out until only his tip remained, and thrust back in. Levi’s eyelashes fluttered while his legs pulled Erwin closer so his body weight pressed over him, like they still weren’t close enough.

Erwin hooked an arm around his waist and once again sat up so Levi straddled him. This way, Levi controlled the pace, but Erwin guided his hips by pressing his thumbs into the dips of his hips where that V rested. Levi squirmed pleasurably, his thighs falling open around Erwin as he rose on his own to glide back down.

Levi had natural grace in everything else; here he did not disappoint either. He quickly found a rhythm and fluid motion that moved him with Erwin slowly, but soon they were grasping at every inch of skin they could reach. Levi’s hands were around Erwin’s shoulders, and then firmly gripping his hair as he lost control.

“Erwin!”

Strong hands held Levi’s ass, and Erwin’s mouth lifted for his. Levi moaned into his mouth and then whimpered as he came hard around Erwin, clenching and driving him right into his own orgasm. Between Levi’s tongue, his hands, his scent, and everything else, Erwin thrust upward and moaned deep in his chest.

They sat there for a long time, simply catching their breath and coming down from their highs. Levi was slumped around Erwin, so the latter carefully turned them around and pulled down the bedclothes before lying back with Levi sprawled atop him. Luckily the fire was the only light in the room; otherwise any candles would have been left to burn out since they were both dragged into slumber as soon as Erwin's head hit the pillow.


	15. Something Else

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Levi's heat persists, he and Erwin enjoy their morning after, and Erwin discovers that not only is he no longer alone, but he never was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! The last chapter :( BUT there's a treat awaiting you at the end ;) Happy reading!

Erwin awoke with a feeling of such contentment that he had no idea where he was. Pale light made everything look surreal, dreamlike, as his gaze drifted to the window, where it was still snowing lightly outside. The cogs of his mind slowly turned as he processed that snow meant cold, but he was nice and warm...toasty, actually…

His eyes dropped to the figure tucked beside him. A warm feeling for entirely different reasons bloomed in Erwin’s belly as he observed Levi’s bare back alongside his torso. The bedclothes had been shoved to their waists at some point in the night, but Erwin wasn’t cold, and when he examined the rosy blush between Levi’s shoulder blades, he knew why.

Erwin carefully adjusted so he could turn Levi over, and since his bicep was being used as a pillow, it wasn’t too difficult. The same blush was on Levi’s chest, and dusted across his cheeks. His lips were parted and still a little supple from last night, but his sunken eyes made Erwin frown. He knew what sleep deprivation looked like; he’d spent many a night in his office before finding the same sunken, bruised look staring back at him in the mirror.

Levi likely had not slept much in the Underground, but was he not sleeping at headquarters? What also concerned Erwin were the tiny droplets of sweat adorning Levi’s brow, his hairline, and the rush of air every time he breathed, like he was exhausted even in his sleep. Erwin hated to wake him, but he must be dehydrated from his heat.

He planted feathery kisses along Levi’s hairline, not minding the light salty taste as he started by the ear, and slowly worked his way up. At his temple, Levi started to rouse, and at the corner of his forehead, his eyelashes lifted to reveal groggy eyes.

“Thirsty?” Erwin murmured deeply in his chest. Levi nodded weakly. Air hissed through his lips when Erwin leaned across the bed for the water pitcher, leaving a cold draft between himself and Levi. When he returned with a tall glass, Erwin helped Levi sit up and positioned the water to his lips. Levi drained the glass dry. “How do you feel?”

Levi seemed to consider that and his eyes fell to the gummy, half-dried semen on his abdomen. “In need of a bath.”

Erwin smiled and thought a bath for two would be the best start to the morning. He whipped off the sheets to prepare it, giving Levi an unadulterated view of his strong shoulders, pert ass, and long legs. He was glad for the water not being frozen, but it took a while for it to heat up once the chamber was lit. By the time steam wafted off the water's surface, Erwin was feeling just as greedy for a cleaning as Levi.

Returning to the room, he smiled at Levi’s eyes watching him with mixed parts of lust, grogginess, and anxiety. The last of which seemed to evaporate when Erwin pulled the covers back and reached out take him in his arms. Levi immediately put his arms around Erwin’s shoulders, burying his face in the crook of his neck. Erwin hooked an arm beneath Levi’s legs and carried him to the tub.

Levi nuzzled his neck in the process of looking up, and he stilled at the sight of the bath. “That’s better than yours.”

Erwin chuckled. “We won't be able to return to headquarters at this rate.”

The tub was set into the floor, a piece of porcelain artwork made up of white and blue tile.

“You won’t overheat, will you?” Erwin asked warily before approaching it.

“Don’t fucking let me go,” Levi scolded as his eyes scanned the room. “Grab the soap first.”

Erwin smiled and did as he was told, also moving his toiletry bag to the side of the tub so neither of them would have to leave. Stepping one leg in and then the other, Erwin lowered them both down in the tub that could seat six. Levi instantly spread out, floating lethargically beneath the surface of the water.

“Why do people even need tubs this big?”

Erwin chuckled as he reached for the shampoo and scrubbed at his scalp. Levi was languidly swimming around when he dipped his head to wash the soap out. Reaching for the bottle again, Levi stopped him. “I can do it.”

Erwin looked at him. “Do you want me to do it?”

That gave Levi pause. “No. I can’t be dependent on you.”

Erwin kept his features calm instead of grinning from ear to ear or revealing the pang of hurt he felt. He pulled Levi onto his lap, his back against Erwin’s chest, and assured, “You’re being pampered, not dependent. Besides, it’s a little late for that, isn’t it?”

Levi gasped as Erwin’s hand closed around his half-stiff member, and in two strokes he was hard and pulsing in Erwin’s hand. His head fell back on Erwin’s broad shoulder, chest heaving as he was massaged beneath the water.

“You’re mine already,” he purred, slowly circling his fingertip over the sensitive underside of Levi’s tip. “Let me pamper you.”

Levi gasped and squirmed gently in Erwin’s arms. “Y-You’re…doing that too slowly,” he complained, and then let out a slow, mewling cry when Erwin’s teeth dragged over the pinna of his ear.

“I want to wash your hair.”

“Wha-now?” Levi sputtered, but Erwin’s hand never stopped beneath the water. It was moving from base to tip, twisting slightly while his other hand came down to gently knead his balls. Levi hooked his feet behind Erwin’s calves to keep himself in place. He wanted to thrust into Erwin’s hand but the man’s hold on his balls and the way one of his fingers stroked and massaged the tender flesh between his balls and hole made Levi squirm in place.

“Yes, now,” Erwin murmured against his neck, nipping at his neck, behind his ear. Levi’s orgasm hit him hard and spontaneously, causing his back to arch off of Erwin as small tendrils of seed spilled from his cock before disintegrating in the water.

Landing from his high in a huff, Levi whispered pointedly, “Watch my ears.”

“Of course,” Erwin kissed his temple before squeezing the shampoo into his hand. He lightly grazed the soap over his hair before working his fingers into the scalp, taking care around Levi’s topmost ears. Meanwhile, Levi found Erwin’s toothbrush and swiped the bristles with minty paste, lavishing his teeth as Erwin tended to his hair.

“Do you know how long you’ll be in heat?”

Levi only shrugged. Erwin was cupping water over his scalp when Levi turned with determined eyes. “Turn around. Long as you are, there’s no way you can reach everything.”

He acquiesced and turned, crossing his forearms over the edge of the tub and resting his chin on them while Levi rubbed soap across his backside. Erwin felt his finely pored pumice stone scrape over his skin a moment later, the gentle scratch and tingle making him feel infinitely cleaner already.

And then Levi’s fingers trailed up the crevasse of his ass. “Oh!” he exclaimed, feeling nimble fingers circling his own entrance. Levi’s fingers were probing but gentle, and Erwin rather liked the tingle there too. He felt Levi’s lips suck a kiss on the base of his neck, kissing each vertebra on his way down.

“Would you ever let me put it in?” he asked, still only massaging the hole and underside of the balls.

 _“Yes,”_ Erwin heard himself breath, ragged and wanting. He’d never been the one penetrated, but with Levi’s fingers discovering all of his tender spots, he was ready to change that. “Are you clean yet?”

Suddenly, Erwin felt Levi’s chest against his back. Levi’s arms came around his torso, hugging him from behind. Not that Erwin minded, but it was such a change from the lusty exploration a few seconds ago.

“Don’t tease me,” Levi said, his cheek pressed between Erwin’s shoulder blades. “It’s my heat. My body wants different things, I can’t keep up.”

Erwin bowed his head, taking one of Levi’s hands and kissing from his fingers to as far as he could go along the forearm. “What does your body want now, Levi?”

“For you to brush your teeth so I can kiss you in bed.”

Erwin laughed, “How can you call yourself dependent when you’re bossing me around all the time?”

“Someone has to bring you down to size,” he sassed. Handing him the brush with fresh paste, he commanded, “Do it right. I want your tongue in my mouth.”

Erwin was surprised both by how openly wanton Levi was, but also by how hard his body reacted. His erection was already up, but it was incredibly distracting when he was doing something as simple as brushing his teeth. Meanwhile, Levi soaped up his own body, ducking under the water to quickly wash.

Erwin took it upon himself to dry Levi, grabbing the largest towel and dropping the fabric around Levi’s waist to tug him forward. Starting at his feet, Erwin rubbed the towel up his legs, pecked kisses on his hipbones in passing. When he reached Levi’s hair, he cradled the base of his head with the towel while his lips found Levi’s.

The kiss was slow, but deep, almost like they needed to remember each other, as if last night had been a dream.

Levi abruptly startled, eyes wide. Erwin tensed, “What is it?” and then added, “What do you hear?” when Levi’s head swiveled toward the corridor outside the bedroom.

“Not now…” Levi uttered.

Then he heard Hange outside and understood. “We better close this,” he muttered, crossing the bathroom and shutting the door the same time Hange burst into the bedroom.

“Erwi—oh. He’s not here.”

“He’s in the bathroom,” they heard Mike explain. And then he added, “With Levi.”

“Well hurry up!” she called. “I’m starving and it’s fucking freezing outside!”

Erwin gave a sympathetic look to Levi, who in turn just looked pissed. Once they’d heard Hange and Mike leave, they emerged and dressed, Levi silently fuming the whole way. They met in the parlor, Shadis listening to Mike explain that the recruits were on holiday leave since the snow had reached them. Hange turned to them and exclaimed, “About time! Could you take longer—o-oh, well I guess you could have.”

Levi’s scowl twisted his mouth as it became known that he was in heat.

“That’s all right,” Mike said, folding an arm around Levi’s shoulders. “Cool your head for later. Even you need to eat.”

Erwin took his hand as they followed the others out of the lodge, only disengaging so he could pull on his gloves once they reached the front door. Erwin found himself in the same restaurant he’d eaten with Pixis, this time seated at a larger table and beside Levi. Removing his gloves and coat, Erwin took Levi’s hand once more under the table. While he caressed the palm with his thumb, Erwin caught a knowing glance from Mike, who only smiled and gave the waitress his drink order.

Erwin’s eyes glanced at Hange scratching at her scalp, and then did a double take at the small, fuzzy ear--much smaller than Levi's had been--poking out of her hair. He stared dumbly while she seemed hell-bent on eliminating an itch there, but when she finally breathed a sigh of relief, she looked up at him as the ear tucked out of sight. She winked at him, placing a finger over her lips.

“But you had no idea what he was when I first came into your lab,” he hissed, gesturing to Levi.

“We’re all different,” Hange stated nonchalantly. “Besides, it makes me look more brilliant if I keep you guessing every now and then.”

Erwin gaped at her and looked around the table to see if anyone else knew. Levi seemed bored and still angry at being interrupted with Erwin, but Mike met his gaze and tapped his nose.

Erwin’s eyes widened. “You too?”

Mike shrugged. “I had a surgeon help with my ears; they didn’t hear so well anyway. My nose is the ticket…when it’s not being abused.”

He stared directly at Levi, who only glared back with a lifted brow. Erwin looked straight ahead to Shadis, who seemed mildly amused as he sipped his white wine. The man winked and said, “I only got one kemon. You have three. I expect great things, Erwin.”

Levi’s hand closed around his possessively, and Erwin couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m going to need all the help I can get, it seems.”

Mike turned to him. “Don’t sell yourself short. The human race needs guardians like us. It’s just a twist of fate that you weren’t born a kemon. You’re something else, but you’re exactly what this cruel, beautiful place needs.”

Hange smiled, nodding eagerly. “It’s going to be a thrill working with you, Commander. It always has been.”

Erwin realized he’d left the bolo tie back in his room, but he didn’t need it right now. He was with his friends, with his equals, even if the military gave them hierarchical titles.

Then he remembered what duties he had as Commander Smith. “Ah, I forgot…” He looked at the clock by the door. He still had two hours before his scheduled luncheon and tea. “I have appointments later.”

“They’ve been cancelled,” Shadis supplied. “Forgive me, I’m retired so my memory is on leave, but you received two notes this morning canceling today’s meetings.”

“You know what that means,” Hange made eye contact with everyone at the table. _“Snowball fight._ Even you, short stack. You’re on my team.”

Levi rolled his eyes but he did in fact get teamed with Hange and Shadis while Erwin and Mike built a barrier of snow after lunch. The numbers were uneven but Mike and Erwin were strategic and held their own. Ultimately, though, they were all so covered in ice and snow that fatigue won, and they retreated inside for hot drinks and fresh clothes.

Shadis retired for a nap while Levi cuddled on Erwin’s lap by the fire. Hange and Mike were discussing something about waffles or chickens; Erwin had lost track with Levi tucked under his chin, smelling of snow and soap. He doubted Mike or Hange even noticed when he scooped the man in his arms and left the parlor. Levi was sucking behind Erwin’s ear in earnest by the time he kicked his door shut behind him.

He threw Levi onto the bed but was on top of him a second later, kissing through his shirt, down his body until he shoved the fabric up, and began the trail back towards Levi’s mouth. His hand was already in Levi’s pants, when he rasped, “Do you want to take me?”

After Levi caught his breath, he shook his head. “Later. Do what you want with me.”

Clothes off and stomach down, Erwin stretched Levi’s opening while he relaxed on his hands and knees. Erwin’s other hand was around his hip, stroking and rolling Levi’s balls so pre-cum had begun to drip onto the sheets. Levi whimpered when that hand left his groin to massage the base of his spine. Erwin’s thumb circled over the indented scar where his tail had once been. His blue eyes grew hooded when Levi’s legs spread for him, ass rising and wanting.

Erwin’s tip stretched Levi, whose spine rippled with pleasure. Levi lowered onto his forearms, completely at Erwin’s will. Erwin marveled at Levi’s backside until he pushed Levi forward, closer to the bed so his back touched Erwin’s chest when he thrust all the way in. The rumpled sheets beneath them tantalized Levi’s cock as he was already moaning with Erwin prodding his prostate. His hands clawed at the bedclothes until Erwin’s fingers entwined over his, and they moved together until they both quaked and fell onto their sides.

In the midst of his heat, Levi proved insatiable. Minutes later he pinned Erwin on his back and positioned himself over Erwin’s cock, riding him slow and hard. Afterward, Erwin was not ready for a third round, but Levi’s lust had him kissing Erwin all over, causing Erwin’s head to fall back as his neck was licked and bitten in all the right ways.

Finally, Erwin tossed Levi onto his back and had him arching off the mattress, his hands locked in Erwin’s hair as he sucked Levi dry.

It wasn’t until after another bath, dinner, and Levi’s fingers in Erwin’s ass that Levi’s fever began to break. “Erwin…I need you.”

“Go ahead,” he breathed, hugging pillows to his chest. “I’m yours.”

Levi was just as careful and considerate as Erwin had been the first time. When he was in to the hilt, they both shuddered. Levi’s hands kneaded Erwin’s ass, making him squirm pleasantly until he wanted Levi’s pace to speed up.

“Shhh,” Levi cooed, leaning down to kiss Erwin’s shoulder as he reached around to fist his swollen, dripping erection. “I’ll take care of you.”

 _“Levi…”_ Erwin whined. “I feel…”

“I know,” Levi hushed, shuddering again as his orgasm built. “I know. Are you okay with this?”

 _“Yes!”_ Erwin declared huskily. He meant to say more, but he suddenly saw spots, and overwhelming, blissful agony erupted in his veins, and all he could feel was Levi.

 

The following morning, when Levi emerged from the bathroom with his fever finally abated, his feet halted on the carpet as his eyes locked onto Erwin’s bare body lying on the bed, ass up. Levi gently but thoroughly awoke him with lube between his legs and kisses up his spine.

“Levi, I must warn you…I could get used to this for a long time.”

He felt a bite on his shoulder, but it wasn’t painful. “You haven’t even asked me on a date, yet.”

Erwin laughed and twisted so fast the lube bottle went flying as Levi was pinned on his back. Erwin’s fingers were laced with his above his head, and Levi’s legs were already open around his hips.

Erwin’s smile faded, and he unlocked one of his hands to move Levi’s hair out of his eyes, caressing his hairline and along the side of his face. “Nothing will be easy after this.”

Levi’s expression fell, but his fingertips moved over Erwin’s face as well; across his lips, his brow, delicately sweeping beneath his bright blue eyes. “Just don’t make it a habit of being depressing in bed, all right? The titans can have you when I’m through with you, but not until then.”

Erwin laughed despite himself, and gratefully left it at that. Peering between them, he asked, “Should I retrieve the lube?”

Levi shook his head, pulling Erwin closer. “No.”

Erwin’s lips pressed over his with a revitalized hunger, and he was wonderfully surprised to feel that Levi had slicked and stretched his own opening just in case.

 

Hange scratched her nose. “Should we…you know, tell Erwin that kemon mate for life?”

Shadis smiled knowingly. “I think he already knows, deep down.”

Mike swallowed his spoonful of oatmeal and asked, “What about you and Petra?”

Hange rolled her eyes. “She’s not actually sleeping with Auruo. She’s just flirting with him to annoy me.”

“Why is that?” Shadis asked, intrigued.

Mike smirked and Hange clamped a hand over his mouth. "Don't you fucking dare, Zacharias. I know where you sleep. And Keith, you're not old enough to be a dirty old man, yet."

Shadis guffawed. "Please. Petra didn't like your...inventive lubricants, I know. Send her roses and a bottle of whatever Smith's using and she'll come back. I can recommend a discrete store as well, if you like."

Mike and Hange stared at him, and then burst out laughing for so long that Levi entered with a scowl, warning them to keep it down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've already started my next fanfic! Check out the first chapter of _Anonymous_ on my page and tell me what you think :)

**Author's Note:**

> [My Tumblr](http://pondermoniums.tumblr.com/)
> 
> [@Pondermoniums on Twitter](https://twitter.com/Pondermoniums)


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